The simplest way to drink slower is to take smaller sips, but that’s only the starting point. Your glass shape, your environment, and even what you do between sips all influence how fast you finish a drink. Most people don’t realize how much of their drinking pace is automatic, driven by cues they never consciously chose. Here’s what actually works, and why.
Why Your Glass Shape Matters More Than Willpower
One of the most effective changes you can make is switching your glassware. A University of Bristol study filmed 159 people drinking and found that those using a curved glass finished their drink in about seven minutes, while those using a straight-sided glass took around 11 minutes. That’s nearly 60% slower for the same volume of liquid, with no conscious effort to pace themselves.
The likely explanation is that curved glasses make it harder to judge the halfway point. When you can’t easily tell how much you’ve had, you tend to drink faster in the first half without realizing it. A straight-sided glass gives you a clear visual reference for how quickly you’re going, which naturally applies a brake. If you’re drinking at home, this is one of the easiest swaps you can make. For beer, choose a straight pint glass or a narrow pilsner glass over a tulip or curved snifter. For cocktails or wine, a smaller glass with visible volume markings (even just a mental note of the halfway line) helps.
Take Smaller Sips on Purpose
The average sip of water in a natural, unmonitored setting is about 16 milliliters, roughly a tablespoon. But when people are paying attention to how they drink, their sip size drops to about 6 to 7 milliliters, less than half. That’s a dramatic difference from simply being aware of the act of sipping. Smaller sips mean more sips per glass, which stretches out the total drinking time without requiring you to sit there staring at a full cup.
A practical way to shrink your sips: use a narrower glass or cup opening. Wide-rimmed glasses naturally deliver more liquid per tilt. A narrower opening forces smaller sips by design. Drinking through a thin straw (for non-alcoholic drinks) or from a cup with a lid also limits flow rate. For alcoholic drinks specifically, try sipping the way you’d taste hot coffee: small, deliberate pulls rather than full swallows.
Put the Glass Down Between Sips
This is the most commonly recommended strategy for a reason: it works. When you hold a glass in your hand, you sip reflexively during pauses in conversation, while watching a screen, or simply because it’s there. Setting the glass on the table between sips introduces a physical barrier. You have to decide to pick it up again, which moves drinking from autopilot to a conscious choice.
If you’re at a bar or party, keep your hands busy with something else. Hold your phone, gesture while talking, eat something. The goal is to break the hand-to-mouth loop that drives fast, mindless consumption.
Alternate With Water or Food
Matching every alcoholic drink with a glass of water is classic advice because it reliably doubles the time between refills. But it also works for any situation where you want to slow down, whether you’re trying to nurse a single cocktail through a long dinner or just want to stop finishing your iced coffee in five minutes.
Food plays a similar role. Taking a bite between sips forces natural pauses and gives your hands something to do. At restaurants, waiting for your drink to arrive with your meal rather than ordering it beforehand means you’ll be alternating bites and sips instead of draining the glass while waiting for food.
Your Environment Is Working Against You
Background music tempo directly affects how fast people drink. Research on this topic found that fast music significantly decreased drinking time, meaning people finished their drinks faster when upbeat music was playing. In a loud bar with high-energy music, you’re unconsciously drinking to the rhythm of the room.
You can’t always control the environment, but you can be aware of it. If you’re in a loud, fast-paced setting, that’s the night to be especially deliberate about the glass-down strategy and water alternation. At home, slower background music or a quieter setting naturally encourages a more relaxed pace.
Why Pacing Matters for Alcohol
Your liver processes alcohol at a fixed rate of roughly one standard drink per hour. That rate doesn’t change based on your size, tolerance, or how much water you drink alongside it. When you consume faster than one drink per hour, the excess alcohol accumulates in your bloodstream, raising your blood alcohol level with each additional drink that outpaces your metabolism.
This is why drinking speed matters far more than most people think. Two people can drink the same total amount in an evening, but the one who spaces those drinks out will peak at a significantly lower blood alcohol concentration. Pacing to roughly one drink per hour keeps your intake aligned with what your body can actually handle in real time.
Building the Habit
Most fast drinking is a habit, not a craving. You learned to drink at a certain pace over years of social situations, and changing it takes some intentional practice. Start with one strategy at a time rather than overhauling everything. Switching to a straight-sided glass at home or committing to the glass-down rule at your next dinner out gives you a single focus.
Tracking can help in the early stages. Time how long your current drink lasts, then try to beat that by a few minutes next time. Even setting a quiet phone timer for 20 or 30 minutes and challenging yourself to still have drink left when it goes off gives you a concrete target. Over a few weeks, the slower pace starts to feel normal, and the old speed feels rushed.