Think back to your late teens and early 20s, a time when you could go out more than once a week without feeling broken and hangovers were more urban legend than a regular aftereffect of a few too many white wines with your mates. The good old days, right?

These days, we’re all more likely to need at least one duvet day to recuperate from a big night out, and you can forget about the hair of the dog – there’s no way we’re going out two nights in a row. Whether it’s personality type, tiredness or metabolism, one thing is clear – hangovers get worse with age. We take a look at the reasons the hangovers from a night on the town are becoming so much harder to manage. 

For the uninitiated, a hangover is the term given to the set of frankly rubbish symptoms we can all experience after drinking alcohol. And it doesn’t even need to be heavy drinking, as everyone’s tolerance to alcohol is different.

“Each person’s experience of a hangover is individual,” explains Dr Aishah Shah, a GP. “Symptoms will vary from person to person but can include headaches, nausea, sensitivity to light and sound, muscle aches and anxiety.”

Combined, these can result in a pretty miserable day. But why does age seem to make things even worse? 

Changes in sleep patterns

Whatever your circumstances, the chances are that you’re not able to sleep off a hangover in the same way as back in the day. Work, family commitments and hectic lifestyles mean a day recovering in bed is unlikely, and sleep patterns tend to change as we age – studies show that sleep quality and duration tends to decline between young and middle-adulthood. This means that as we get older, we’re more likely to feel groggy and exhausted after a night out – and throw in the fact that alcohol negatively impacts sleep, and you’re almost certain to feel shattered the next day.

Dehydration

Remember your mum popping a glass of water by your bed when you’d been out? As always, she was right – dehydration makes your hangover feel much worse, contributing to headaches, fatigue and dry mouth. And there’s more good news – this also gets worse with age.

“As we age, the total volume of water inside the body decreases,” explains Dr Zoe Watson, a GP and founder of wellbeing website Wellgood Wellbeing. “This means that our blood alcohol level increases a lot quicker when we consume alcoholic drinks, which is why you get drunk more quickly as you age. This essentially means that if you continue to try and drink at levels you did in your 20s, you will increase your blood alcohol level a lot more and your body will take longer to process the same amount of alcoholic drinks – resulting in a worse hangover.”

Declining liver function and increased sensitivity to alcohol

If you’re not too depressed to read on, there’s more science to back up your worsening symptoms. If you’re convinced you can’t drink as much as you used to be able to, you’re right – we do get more sensitive to alcohol as we get older, meaning we’re more likely to experience unpleasant symptoms sooner, and part of this is down to a decline in liver function as we age. 

“Alcohol is primarily metabolised by the liver,” explains Dr Watson. “As you age, the activity of the enzymes responsible for metabolising alcohol slow down, meaning it takes much longer to process the alcohol we have consumed.”

Essentially, you’ll start to feel the effects of a drink sooner than you used to, and they’ll last longer – and not in a good way.

Pain sensitivity

That headache really does hit harder in your 30s – studies show that older adults have increased sensitivity to pain, with pain tending to occur sooner and last longer than in younger people. So, if you do tend to get headaches with your hangover, these are likely to become worse over time.

If you’re not convinced to explore sobriety after this – it’s not all bad news. Hangovers are miserable, but mostly tend to subside within 24 hours or so. If you’re concerned about your symptoms, though, always consult your GP.

But as a general rule, whatever your age, staying hydrated is vital to recovery. Make sure you get some rest, drink water regularly and take painkillers for any headache or muscle pains – and you might want to remember this moment for the next time you’re tempted to have just one more negroni sbagliato. 

Images: Getty