No, there are not any tricks that you can use to help yourself sober up any faster than normal. It is all dictated by your body’s alcohol metabolism rate. Generally speaking, your blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, goes down by about 0.015% every hour after you stop drinking.
What this means is that you simply have to give your body enough time to process the alcohol in order for your BAC to drop – and it can take a significant amount of time for that to happen. You generally cannot just sober up in half an hour and be okay to drive. If your BAC was well over the legal limit, it can take hours for it to drop far enough, so you would be risking DUI charges if you got behind the wheel too soon.
Why do people believe that various tricks can help?
There are those who believe certain activities can sober them up quickly. Two common examples are taking a cold shower or drinking a cup of coffee.
The first reason that people may believe this works is because both of those activities will wake them up. A person who has been drinking may feel excessively tired, groggy and fatigued. A cup of coffee wakes them up, so they think they are sober, but the truth is that their BAC is still high.
The second reason is that taking a shower or drinking coffee does take time. So the person’s BAC has dropped marginally. But the issue is that it probably has not dropped by any meaningful amount, so they could still be over the legal limit.
Defense options after DUI charges
It is important to understand how your BAC works, as these misconceptions could lead to a DUI charge. If you have been arrested, it is critical that you know what defense options you have at this time.