Water is the single most important thing to drink for a hangover, but it works best when paired with electrolytes and a source of sugar. Alcohol suppresses your body’s antidiuretic hormone, causing you to urinate far more than you normally would. Roughly 100 ml of extra urine is produced for every 10 grams of alcohol you consume, which means a night of heavy drinking can leave you severely dehydrated before you even wake up. The right combination of fluids can reverse that deficit and ease the headache, nausea, and fatigue that come with it.
Water First, Then Electrolytes
Plain water is your starting point. Drink it steadily from the moment you wake up, and keep going until your urine runs clear. But water alone replaces volume without replacing the sodium and potassium you lost overnight. That’s where electrolyte drinks come in. Sports drinks, oral rehydration solutions, or electrolyte powders mixed into water all work. The key is a sodium-to-potassium ratio in the range of 3:1 to 4:1, which maximizes how much fluid your cells actually retain rather than just passing through.
A carbohydrate concentration of 6 to 8 percent (roughly what you’d find in a standard sports drink) helps your gut absorb the fluid faster without triggering more nausea. If a sports drink tastes too sweet or sits badly in your stomach, dilute it with equal parts water.
Coconut Water for Potassium
Coconut water is a strong option if you prefer something more natural. One cup contains about 404 mg of potassium compared to just 37 mg in the same amount of a typical sports drink like Gatorade. Potassium is one of the electrolytes alcohol depletes most aggressively, and low potassium contributes to the muscle weakness and fatigue that make hangovers feel so physically draining.
The tradeoff is that coconut water is lower in sodium (64 mg per cup versus 97 mg in Gatorade), so it doesn’t fully replace what you need on its own. Pairing coconut water with a salty snack or a pinch of salt closes that gap.
Broth and Bone Broth
Broth is one of the most underrated hangover drinks. It delivers sodium, potassium, and water in a form that’s gentle on a queasy stomach. Bone broth specifically contains three amino acids, cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine, that support your liver’s ability to process the toxic byproducts of alcohol metabolism. Cysteine in particular helps your body produce glutathione, the main antioxidant your liver uses to neutralize acetaldehyde, the compound largely responsible for how terrible you feel.
Chicken broth from a carton works fine if you don’t have bone broth on hand. The sodium and warm liquid alone will help.
Fruit Juice and the Fructose Effect
Fruit juice does something that water and electrolyte drinks don’t: it delivers fructose, a sugar that can speed up how fast your liver clears alcohol from your system. In liver cell studies, fructose increased the rate of ethanol metabolism by more than 50 percent. It works by helping regenerate a key molecule your liver enzymes need to keep breaking down alcohol and its byproducts. Glucose doesn’t have this same effect.
Orange juice, apple juice, or any juice with natural fructose content will do. The vitamin C is a bonus, but the real benefit is the sugar itself. If your stomach can’t handle the acidity of citrus juice, apple juice or pear juice are milder alternatives. Keep portions moderate, around 8 to 12 ounces, since too much fructose on an empty stomach can worsen nausea.
Coffee and Tea: Handle With Care
Caffeine narrows blood vessels, which can relieve a pounding hangover headache by reducing blood flow and pressure around the brain. If you’re a regular coffee drinker, skipping your morning cup will actually add a caffeine withdrawal headache on top of your hangover, making things worse. So for daily coffee drinkers, a cup is reasonable.
The risk is that caffeine is also a mild diuretic, which can deepen dehydration if you’re not drinking enough water alongside it. It can also irritate an already sensitive stomach. Drink coffee only after you’ve had at least a glass or two of water, and keep it to one cup. Tea is a gentler option with less caffeine and less stomach irritation.
What Not to Drink
“Hair of the dog,” or drinking more alcohol the next morning, is the oldest hangover remedy and the worst one. It does have a real biochemical basis: when your body metabolizes cheap spirits or red wine, it produces small amounts of methanol as a byproduct. Methanol gets converted into formaldehyde and formic acid, both toxic. Drinking more ethanol temporarily blocks methanol metabolism, which can make you feel better for an hour or two. But you’re simply postponing the hangover while adding more alcohol your liver has to process. It’s borrowing against a debt that only gets larger.
Sugary sodas and energy drinks are also poor choices. The high sugar content can spike and crash your blood sugar, and energy drinks pack far more caffeine than coffee, increasing the risk of dehydration and heart palpitations when your body is already stressed.
IV Drips Are Rarely Necessary
Hangover IV clinics have become popular in cities, offering bags of saline, electrolytes, vitamins, and sometimes anti-nausea medication delivered intravenously. According to University of Rochester Medicine, IV fluids are not recommended unless you genuinely cannot keep water down. For most people, oral rehydration works just as well and doesn’t carry the small but real risks of IV access, including infection and electrolyte imbalances that could be dangerous without prior bloodwork. Save the IV for a medical situation, not a Saturday morning.
A Practical Drinking Plan
The most effective approach combines several of these drinks over the course of your recovery rather than relying on any single one. Start with a tall glass of water as soon as you wake up. Follow it with an electrolyte drink or coconut water within the first hour. If your stomach is settled enough, have a small glass of fruit juice for the fructose benefit. Sip broth with lunch or whenever solid food still feels unappealing. If you’re a coffee drinker, have your cup after at least 16 ounces of non-caffeinated fluid.
Keep drinking water throughout the day. Most hangover symptoms resolve within 24 hours, and consistent hydration is the single biggest factor in how quickly you get there.