Talk about a killer hangover. Driving the morning after a night of heavy partying may be as dangerous as driving drunk, according to new research from the U.K. and The Netherlands.
In the Dutch study, people who'd swallowed the equivalent of 10 drinks the night before a driving simulation--but who blew zeroes on a breathalyzer--performed worse on a driving course than those who blew above the legal limit. (And no, the breathalyzers weren't broken.) And a smaller UK study found drivers with hangovers could not control their speed, wandered over lane lines, and suffered from slower reaction times compared to people who didn't booze the night before.
When you're in the throes of a hangover--even though you're legally sober--your brain is still reeling from the previous night's partying, says Chris Alford, Ph.D., coauthor of the UK study. And until you feel like yourself again, your concentration and ability to focus on the road are seriously compromised--just as they would be if you had been actively drinking. To be clear, the research compares driving with a hangover to driving just above the legal alcohol limit--which may not even leave you wit h a hangover. That's not the same as driving wasted, which is a lot more dangerous.
You know the symptoms of a hangover: Fatigue. Poor concentration. Clumsiness. Confusion. Thirst. Dizziness. A pounding heart. And until those have subsided, you're putting your life--and other people's lives--at risk, Alford stresses. "Once your hangover's gone, that's when you're safe," he says.
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