- Standard drink
- Full vs. empty stomach
- Other factors
- Duration
- Tips
- Takeaway
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You might be surprised at just how fast alcohol begins to take effect. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol enters your bloodstream as soon as you take that first sip. The effects kick in within about 10 minutes.
The effects and how pronounced they are vary from person to person, but alcohol’s initial effects kick in pretty darn quick, even if you don’t immediately notice them.
Experts typically talk about alcohol in terms of standard drinks. Alcohol content varies significantly between different drinks and brands, so having a standardized idea of what’s in a typical drink helps keep everyone on the same page.
In the United States, one standard drink contains approximately 0.6 ounces, or 14 grams, of pure alcohol.
Your body absorbs alcohol into your bloodstream much faster when you drink on an empty stomach.
Once you swallow, the liquid goes to your stomach, where roughly 20 percent of it is absorbed into your blood. From there, it passes to your small intestine, where the rest is absorbed into your bloodstream.
If you have food in your stomach, it’ll prevent the alcohol from passing into your small intestine too quickly. The longer the alcohol stays in your stomach, the slower the onset of its effects.
Drinking on an empty stomach causes this whole process to happen much faster. This intensifies the effects and makes them come on faster. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) peaks about 1 hour after you drink on an empty stomach.
The number of drinks you have and whether or not you have food in your belly aren’t the only variables when it comes to how quickly alcohol takes effect.
Here’s a look at some other factors that play a role.
What you drink
The type of drink you consume makes a difference, too. Carbonated drinks, such as champagne or a whiskey soda, enter your system faster. This means that those drinks will generally kick in sooner.
On an empty stomach, a drink with 20 to 30 percent alcohol absorbs the quickest.
That means something like port, which has 20 percent alcohol, would raise your BAC faster than beer, which has significantly less alcohol, but also faster than something like vodka, which has 40 percent alcohol.
How you drink
Yes, how you drink matters. If you chug back a drink, those big gulps will get more alcohol into your body a lot faster. Sipping, on the other hand, allows the effects to kick in more gradually.
Your biological sex
Females metabolize alcohol at a different rate than males, even if they weigh the same.
Here’s why:
- Females have less body water to dilute alcohol, resulting in a higher concentration of blood alcohol.
- Females typically have higher body fat, and fat retains alcohol.
- Women produce less alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme the liver releases to break down alcohol.
Your weight
The more you weigh, the more space alcohol has to spread out. Diffusing the alcohol throughout a bigger space means you end up with a lower BAC.
Medications
Certain prescriptions and over-the-counter medications, herbal supplements, and recreational drugs can have adverse interactions when paired with alcohol. Be sure to talk to your doctor or pharmacist before drinking.
Your menstrual cycle
Who knew? The rate at which your body absorbs alcohol changes throughout your menstrual cycle.
You’ll absorb it faster during ovulation and just before your period.
It depends on a lot of the factors discussed above as well as how much you’ve had.
Alcohol is removed from your blood at a rate of around 3.3 millimoles per hour.
To put this into perspective, this is how long the following drinks remain in your system:
- small shot of liquor: 1 hour
- pint of beer: 2 hours
- large glass of wine: 3 hours
No one wants to be the person who went a little too hard.
Here are some best practices to avoid getting too drunk too fast:
- Eat at least 1 hour before drinking.
- Sip your drinks slowly.
- Avoid shots, which you’re likely to down rather than sip.
- Don’t drink more than one standard drink per hour.
- Alternate between alcohol and nonalcoholic drinks, preferably water.
- Limit or avoid carbonated drinks, like champagne, sparkling wine, and cocktails mixed with soda.
- Sit down when drinking, since doing it while standing tends to make people drink faster.
Alcohol kicks in pretty quick. You’ll typically start feeling the effects within about 10 minutes or so, depending on the strength of your drink and how fast you drink it.
Last medically reviewed on October 22, 2019
Once alcohol is swallowed, it is not digested like food. First, a small amount is absorbed directly by the tongue and mucosal lining of the mouth. Once in the stomach, alcohol is absorbed directly into your blood stream through the tissue lining of the stomach and small intestine.
Food in the stomach can inhibit the absorption of alcohol in two ways:
First, it physically obstructs the alcohol from coming in contact with the stomach lining. Food can either absorb alcohol, or simply “take up space” so the alcohol does not enter the bloodstream through contact with the wall of the stomach.
Second, food in the stomach will prevent alcohol from passing into the duodenum, which is the upper portion of the small intestine. The surface area of the small intestine is very large (about the size of a tennis court), so alcohol has more access to enter the bloodstream once it leaves the stomach. If alcohol is sequestered in the stomach it will be absorbed slower.
Transporting
Once alcohol is in your bloodstream, it is carried to all organs of your body. In the majority of healthy people, blood circulates through the body in 90 seconds, thereby allowing alcohol to affect your brain and all other organs in a short amount of time. The full effects of a drink are felt within 15 to 45 minutes depending on the speed of absorption.
Alcohol enters all tissues of the body except bone and fat. In an adult male, alcohol can penetrate approximately 68% of body tissues. Body composition is important, because if the percentage of adipose tissue is high, the alcohol can only be distributed throughout the remaining lean tissue – resulting in a higher concentration for those areas.
The effects of alcohol on the body will vary according to the individual: their sex, body composition, the amount of alcohol consumed, the presence of food, and the ability of the liver to produce the alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes.
Alcohol is a toxin that must be neutralized or eliminated from the body. Ten percent of alcohol is eliminated through sweat, breath, and urine.
Alcohol is volatile (will evaporate in air), so when alcohol in the blood comes in contact with air in the alveoli of the lungs, it can be transferred out of the body through breath.
The liver is the primary organ responsible for the detoxification of alcohol. Liver cells produce the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase which breaks alcohol into ketones at a rate of about 0.015 g/100mL/hour (reduces BAC by 0.015 per hour).
Nothing will speed up the rate of detoxification, but the effective metabolism of alcohol can be limited by medications and liver damage.
When the rate of consumption exceeds the rate of detoxification, BAC will continue to rise.
How Fast Can You Sober Up?
Alcohol leaves the body at an average rate of 0.015 g/100mL/hour, which is the same as reducing your BAC level by 0.015 per hour. For men, this is usually a rate of about one standard drink per hour. However, there are other factors that affect intoxication level (gender, some medications, illness) that will cause BAC to rise more quickly, and fall more slowly.
Example: At an average rate of -0.015/hr, how long would it take someone with a BAC of 0.20 to sober up?
There is no way to speed up the rate your body gets rid of alcohol. While small amounts of alcohol leave your body in your urine, sweat and breath, your liver breaks down most of the alcohol. A healthy liver breaks down less than one standard drink per hour. If your liver is damaged it takes even longer.
Black coffee, showers, water or food will not work. The only thing that sobers you up is time. After a big night out you may still be over your legal alcohol limit for much of the next day.
After a heavy night of drinking, it can take more than 18 hours for your blood alcohol concentration to get back to zero. Many people are booked for drink driving the next day.
Ben is 19 and holds a P2 licence with a zero alcohol limit. He started drinking at 6pm and had 10 schooners of full strength beer (15 standard drinks) over 6 hours. At midnight his blood alcohol concentration was 0.17. He got a cab home.
It took more than 11 hours before Ben’s BAC was back to zero. The next day Ben was not able to drive his friends to the beach for an early morning surf. He had to wait until almost noon before he could drive.
Melita is 18 and holds a P1 licence with a zero alcohol limit. She started drinking at 10pm and had 6 mixer (9 standard) drinks over 4 hours. At 2am her blood alcohol concentration was 0.24. She stayed the night at a friend’s house.
It took more than 16 hours before Melita’s BAC was back to zero. Melita had to get her mum to drive her to work that morning. She had to wait until 6pm that night before she could drive.
Plan ahead to get home
Our Getting home safely tips can help you plan ahead to avoid driving if you are affected by alcohol or other drugs. If you plan a big night out drinking, plan not to drive for most of the next day.