The morning after the night before - still over the limit?

[dawny1]

Thanks Cyclone it has really been worrying me to think that I could have driven over the limit without being aware of it. I will make sure I don't have to do any driving early in the morning if Ive had a drink the night before, so that means I won't be doing a trip to the Asda until mid-day tomorrow.

[Twiglet]

It's far easier than you think to do this. My parents don't tend to drink at all if they have to drive early the next morning, and only have one glass of wine if they do. Everybody is different and it may take you far longer than 1 hour per unit for the alcohol to leave your system so the safest way is not to drink at all if you know you are driving early.

 

Cyclone, I'm not sure the given example is quite right. If you drink 4 pints over the course of the night and finish at say midnight, it probably isn't safe to drive only 4 hours later! Road safety Scotland says:

 

"It can take up to 12 hours to be safe to drive after drinking four pints of continental lager or ale, or 1 bottle of wine" note that says AFTER so if you finish drinking at midnight you may not be able to drive until midday.

 

They also say: "After four drinks during an evening, most motorists who drive the next morning will be over the limit"

[artisan]

it just shows what a farce these 'gudelines' are.

You cannot compare the ammount a person has drunk to the ammount of alcohol in their blood.

If someone six feet two and 18 stone drinks 4 pints, it will be more dispersed in their blood than if someone five feet two and 8 stone drinks four pints, simply because they have more blood.

However the effect on their brains may be totally different.

Also metabolic rates are different in different individuals.

There are various safe ways

a) dont drink

b) If you do drink dont bring yourself to the attention of the law.

This is best done by driving correctly and avoiding knocking people down etc.

If you are still seeing double, shut each eye alternately and you will get decent depth perception to allow you to brace before you smash into the car in front.

c) Get the Bus

 

:hihi:

[cgksheff]

........ as drinking 8 pints takes several hours at least.

 

:hihi::hihi:

 

Not round our way!

[Cyclone]

The average is 1 hr per unit, you liver starts working as soon as the alcohol hits you.

If you drank one pint per two hours, you'd be okay to drive at any point as your liver is eliminating the alcohol as fast as you're drinking it.

 

I wouldn't trust a road safety website to give unbiased advice on anything to do with the road or safety.

 

Everyone is different, so one of the cheap breath test units would be a good idea I guess to find out how well your body copes.

[Cyclone]

:hihi::hihi:

 

Not round our way!

 

depends on how hard your trying I suppose. I can't do more than a pint a half hour these days (well, I can't keep it up for long anyway).

[Cyclone]

I've never checked before to see how accurate the 8 pints of blood thing is.

But surgical guidelines indicate that an adult has

 

Adults 70ml/ kg body weight

 

So personally I have nearly 6 litres of blood, which is more like 10.5 pints.

Whereas my SO has only 7.5 pints.

There's clearly going to be a difference in the effect if we both drink the same, and equally my liver will be larger, so I should eliminate alcohol faster.

[medusa]

The only thing to add to Cyclone's information on one unit of alcohol being digested per hour is that if you drink a lot of alcohol in a very short space of time you load your system with incoming alcohol, and it actually REDUCES your body's ability to digest the alcohol.

 

The maximal rate that your body's alcohol dehydrogenase works at amounts to a concentration of only 3 or 4 units of alcohol for the average person, after which the efficiency of the enzyme starts to reduce, thus taking far more than an hour to digest each unit of alcohol.

 

So if you want to be fit to drive the following morning, drink your drinks slowly, have food before you drink (which means that there will be plenty of energy in your system with which to digest the alcohol), have plenty of liquids to help your body flush out the byproducts from digestion and prevent dehydration causing hangovers, and stop drinking in plenty of time for the alcohol to be digested before you think of driving.

 

Oh- and to the OP- if you measure your voddie out then 2 tablespoons is just over 1 unit of alcohol. If in doubt measure how much fits in a shot glass then use that as a measure so you know how much you're drinking.

[Twiglet]

I've never checked before to see how accurate the 8 pints of blood thing is.

But surgical guidelines indicate that an adult has

 

Adults 70ml/ kg body weight

 

So personally I have nearly 6 litres of blood, which is more like 10.5 pints.

Whereas my SO has only 7.5 pints.

There's clearly going to be a difference in the effect if we both drink the same, and equally my liver will be larger, so I should eliminate alcohol faster.

 

Now that's something I'd never thought about! So if I drank 6 pints I'd have equal amounts of beer and blood in my body

 

Further to Medusa's point about the dehydrogenase efficiency, the more you drink the more dehydrated you become and the lower your blood volume is. Therefore each successive drink has a larger impact on your system than the previous.

[Cyclone]

the dehydration thing only applies to drinks above about 3%, below that then your taking in as much water as you're eliminating.

 

If you're drinking enough to be still over the limit, then you'll be hungover enough not to want to drive.