When would you drive the next day...

[PinkBalloon123]

Female aged 35, 11. 6 stone. Started drinking at 6pm finished at 11pm you had 12.7 units in total...

For the record I NEVER drive the morning after a heavy drink but sometimes I feel absolutely fine and wonder if actually it probably would be okay to pop to Asda. I'd buy a breathalyser but I don't know how reliable they are...

I think it takes about an hour to breakdown one unit of alcohol. But that’s an average.

I would be leaving it till mid afternoon if not evening, just not worth the risk.

13 hours after 11 pm. So midday ish.

It depends when your units were consumed,

If you downed 8 shots at 6pm and then had a glass of wine at 11pm you were probably legally ok to drive very early this morning.

If you had a glass of wine at 6pm and then downed 8 shots at 11pm you probably would need to leave it until mid/late morning.

I agree. Sometimes I'll be driving literally 20 hours later and I'll convince myself I'm feeling dizzy and twitchy because I'm still pissed (it's anxiety). I hate drunk drivers.

13 hours after 11 pm. So midday ish

That assumes that all the units were consumed at 11pm. They weren't.

That assumes that all the units were consumed at 11pm. They weren't.

Better to be safe than sorry so yes I agree with midday ish.

That assumes that the last unit was consumed by 11.

I think the rules of when you are allowed to drive are very confusing.

I usually leave it at least however many units / hours I've consumed since the last drop was swallowed even though the units I drank first have probably already broken down, it's just "extra time" then.

I don't worry about not being in control of the car, of course I wouldn't drive if that was the case. But people forget if someone else crashes into you - everyone involved in an RTA gets breathalysed.

From training that I’ve had bar working we’re always told to count your units as hours from when you stop drinking. Your height, weight, age, gender etc has no significance. I’m in Scotland where we have zero tolerance so if I were you I wouldn’t drive until 1pm the next day.

But the body doesn't just start metabolising the alcohol when you decide to stop drinking, it's doing it constantly from about an hour after your first drink.

You can't add them all up and then say it's X hours from the point you stop drinking, that's not how the body works.

I'm not disagreeing that the OP shouldn't be driving first thing if she's been drinking into the early hours, but it's nonsense to suggest that she shouldn't be driving until mid afternoon when she stopped drinking at 11pm and presumably consumed many of the units much earlier than that.

It's 1 hour 15 minutes per unit. Stronger wine and beer can have more in than you think. So I would say, if drinking steadily from 6 it would take about 15 hours to process. That makes it about 9am. But, if you drank the majority of it at 10-11 then 1 o 'clock would be the answer.

She asked what you would do and mid afternoon is an honest answer, 12 units is a lot of alcohol so I'd definitely be erring on the side of caution.

There is no way on earth I'd be getting behind the wheel at 9am after drinking heavily the night before

I also can't help wondering if it makes a difference depending on what / where you drink although a unit is a unit. For instance on Thursday night I had wine, Jack Daniels and beer, I think five drinks in total and it was out and about being hit with fresh air etc. I felt pretty hammered. I had the equivalent in wine alone at home the following night and didn't feel as woozy.

(by the way I'm not an alcoholic I have just had an unusually social week!)

I had a friend who used to stay over so he was safe to drive, and I always told him there's no ways he was under the limit when he got up to go home, but he'd never listen. I personally try not to have a heavy night (I'm happy with just a couple of drinks tbh) unless I can have a day off driving the next day. Weekends are easy for me to not have to drive.

Room, all the advice I have seen says it’s hours once you have stopped drinking. Are you a doctor? Not being argumentative, just wondering if the government advice on this is Wrong

There are online calculators you can use

morning-after.org.uk/?page_id=82

I’d leave it until after midday at least. Probably more like mid-afternoon to be on the safe side.

I know that you start metabolising the alcohol as soon as you start drinking, so you might well be fine before then, but given the potential consequences of drink driving, personally I’d leave the extra time even though it may not be absolutely necessary.

Most of us don’t have breathalysers at home (so can’t check) after all.

Even if you were driving fine, you might still get pulled over for a random check, or have someone else crash into you and the police breathalyse all the drivers.

I thought that the body started metabolising the units of alcohol from when you strted drinking. So 6pm to 10am is 16 hours and therefore all the alcohol has now broken down and youre ok to drive?

@sunshineangel yeah I know people who drive with massive hangovers, they'll drink until 3am and be up in the car at 6am and think it's fine because they've had a sleep

I'm not a drinker, but on the ( very rare ) occasion during the working week , I caught public transport to work.

Dollymixture

that calculator even says that they are being over cautious to calculate from when you stop, the point is that as I have said above it doesn't know if you had all your units at 11pm or if you spread them out from 6pm, so it just calculates it as if you had them all at 11pm to be on the safe side.

In real life that's not what happens and the OP has probably metabolised a portion of the units before she even stopped drinking.

I'm not a doctor but you don't have to be to have some knowledge of how the human body works. I understand WHY drink driving campaigners and calculators do it from the last drink but it doesn't make it scientifically correct and as demonstrated can actually be really confusing.

Room, as I said not being argumentative at all, Just curious.

A family friend was killed by a drunk driver. I think people should be very careful, and zero tolerance is the way to go.

I think keeping the advice consistent from he last drink is a very sensible approach. I but was curious why the official advice is this if it is medically incorrect.

I have plenty of knowledge of how the body works but would still massively err on the side of caution with this. Why risk it?