Water is the single most important thing to drink when you’re hungover, but it’s not the only thing that helps. Alcohol causes your body to expel roughly four times more liquid than you take in, so a night of drinking leaves you significantly dehydrated. Combining water with drinks that replace electrolytes, settle your stomach, or support your liver’s cleanup process will get you feeling better faster.
Why Alcohol Dehydrates You So Aggressively
Alcohol blocks your brain’s pituitary gland from producing the hormone that tells your kidneys to hold onto water. Without that signal, your kidneys flush water straight to your bladder instead of recirculating it. Drinking just 250 milliliters of an alcoholic beverage (roughly one glass of wine) causes your body to lose 800 to 1,000 milliliters of water. That’s a net loss of three to four glasses of fluid for every glass of alcohol.
This is why you wake up with a dry mouth, a pounding headache, and dizziness. Your blood volume drops, your brain tissue shrinks slightly from fluid loss, and your electrolyte balance is thrown off. Everything you drink the morning after should work to reverse this deficit.
Water: Start Here, But Don’t Stop Here
Plain water is the foundation. Sip it steadily rather than chugging a full liter at once, which can make nausea worse. A good target is to drink at least two to three large glasses over the first hour or two after waking. If your stomach is too unsettled for big gulps, take small sips every few minutes. Water alone won’t replace the sodium and potassium you’ve lost, though, which is why other drinks matter too.
Electrolyte Drinks
When you lose that much fluid, you also lose electrolytes, particularly sodium and potassium. These minerals regulate your fluid balance, muscle function, and nerve signaling. Low levels contribute to the weakness, headaches, and brain fog that come with a hangover.
Sports drinks, coconut water, or oral rehydration solutions all work here. Coconut water is naturally high in potassium. Sports drinks tend to have more sodium. Oral rehydration solutions (sold at pharmacies, originally designed for treating dehydration from illness) have the most precise electrolyte ratios and are the fastest at restoring fluid balance. Any of these will outperform plain water for rehydration.
Ginger Tea for Nausea
If nausea is your main problem, ginger is one of the most effective natural options. Compounds in fresh ginger root speed up stomach emptying and reduce inflammation in the digestive tract, both of which calm that queasy, bloated feeling. Ginger also supports the release of hormones that help regulate blood pressure, which can ease the general sense of feeling awful.
The simplest approach is ginger tea: slice a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, steep it in hot water for five to ten minutes, and sip slowly. Research suggests that roughly 1,000 to 1,500 milligrams of ginger per day, split across multiple doses, is effective for nausea. One cup of strong ginger tea falls within that range. You can also use ginger tea bags or add honey for taste and a small blood sugar boost. Avoid heavily sweetened commercial ginger ales, which often contain very little actual ginger.
Tomato Juice
There’s a reason the Bloody Mary has a reputation as a hangover cure (minus the vodka). Tomato juice contains compounds that appear to speed up alcohol metabolism by improving the chemical pathway your liver uses to break down ethanol. Research from a Japanese study found that water-soluble components in tomatoes increase a key enzyme’s activity and help shift the balance of molecules your liver needs to process alcohol more efficiently.
Tomato juice also provides potassium, sodium, and vitamin C. A glass of it with a pinch of salt covers hydration, electrolyte replacement, and liver support in one drink. If the acidity bothers your stomach, dilute it with water or wait until your nausea settles before trying it.
Bone Broth
Bone broth is one of the most underrated hangover drinks. It’s warm, easy on the stomach, loaded with sodium, and contains the amino acid cysteine. Your liver uses cysteine to produce its main detoxifying compound, which neutralizes acetaldehyde, the toxic byproduct your body creates when breaking down alcohol. Acetaldehyde is responsible for many of the worst hangover symptoms: headache, nausea, and rapid heartbeat.
Animal research from Korea University found that cysteine combined with the detoxifying compound it helps produce significantly suppressed blood levels of both alcohol and acetaldehyde, and reduced markers of liver stress caused by oxidative damage. In practical terms, giving your liver more raw material to work with helps it clear the toxic backlog faster. A mug or two of chicken or beef bone broth sipped throughout the morning is a simple way to get those amino acids along with fluids and salt.
Fruit Juice (Especially High-Fructose Varieties)
Fruit juice serves double duty: it rehydrates you and provides fructose, which your body can use to speed up alcohol clearance. A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that fructose increased the rate of alcohol disappearance from the blood by roughly 30% compared to glucose alone. Sucrose (regular table sugar, which is half fructose) had a similar effect.
Apple juice, orange juice, and pear juice are all good options. Orange juice adds vitamin C and potassium. Apple juice tends to be gentler on a sensitive stomach. If straight juice feels too acidic or sweet, dilute it with equal parts water. The key benefit is giving your liver an energy source it can use quickly while also topping off your blood sugar, which alcohol tends to drop overnight.
What to Skip
Pickle juice has gained popularity as a hangover fix, and it does pack 230 milligrams of sodium in just two tablespoons. But research suggests it doesn’t actually change electrolyte levels much in practice, and the acetic acid can worsen gas, bloating, stomach pain, and diarrhea, all things you’re probably already dealing with. A cup of broth gives you the same sodium without the digestive downsides.
Coffee is a mixed bag. Caffeine can help with headache by constricting dilated blood vessels, but it’s also a mild diuretic that works against your rehydration efforts. If you’re a daily coffee drinker and skipping it would give you a withdrawal headache on top of your hangover, have a small cup alongside plenty of water. Otherwise, hold off until you’re better hydrated.
The “hair of the dog” approach, having another alcoholic drink, delays your hangover rather than curing it. Your liver is already overwhelmed. Adding more alcohol just extends the processing time and pushes symptoms down the road.
A Practical Hangover Drink Plan
- Immediately after waking: two large glasses of water, sipped steadily
- Within the first hour: an electrolyte drink (sports drink, coconut water, or oral rehydration solution)
- For nausea: ginger tea, sipped slowly between other fluids
- Mid-morning: a mug of bone broth for sodium, amino acids, and warmth
- With your first food: a glass of fruit juice or tomato juice
You won’t eliminate a hangover instantly with any single drink. But stacking fluids that target different parts of the problem (dehydration, electrolyte loss, nausea, and liver detoxification) shortens the misery considerably. Most people start feeling noticeably better within two to four hours of consistent rehydration.