What Are Two-Day Hangovers and Why Do They Happen?

A hangover that lasts 24 hours is bad enough, but experiencing those dreaded symptoms—fatigue, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, migraines, anxiety, and many more—for a full 48 hours?! That’s a next-level bummer, not to mention that most of us are too busy to spend a full two days recuperating from a drinking session.

If you’ve ever experienced a two-day hangover, you’re sure to be wondering why they happen and most importantly, how you might be able to avoid them in the future.

Read on as we explain what this phenomenon is, the most common contributing factors, and the most effective, evidence-based strategies to reduce the duration of these awful symptoms without having to give up alcohol consumption entirely.

Understanding Two-Day Hangovers

For starters, the term “hangover” is the unofficial term for what’s technically known among medical professionals as “veisalgia". But whatever you call them, this combination of physical and mental symptoms is worth avoiding. That’s doubly true if you’re prone to hangovers that last more than a day, leaving you debilitated for even longer than the average person.

Hangovers happen after a night (or day) of drinking, when the body has mostly metabolized the alcohol in your system and your blood alcohol level has started to decrease. If you’ve been out drinking in the evening, for instance, you’ll probably feel the effects of that hangover the following morning. That’s because you’re at the point when your body has pretty much completely processed all the residual alcohol and your blood alcohol level is all the way down to 0 percent, but you’re still dealing with the aftereffects of heavy alcohol consumption (more on those in the next section)—including, most notably, lingering amounts of toxic acetaldehyde.

Definition and Symptoms of a Two-Day Hangover

Symptoms of a hangover can be different for everyone, but they most often include the following:

• Fatigue and weakness
• Thirst and dry mouth due to dehydration (because alcohol is a diuretic that increases urine production)
• Headache and/or migraine
• Body aches
• Muscular pain
• Nausea/vomiting
• Digestive distress
• Vertigo
• Light and sound sensitivity
• High blood pressure
• Rapid pulse
• Sweating
• Skin flushing
• Low blood sugar
• Poor/disturbed sleep
• Anxiety, also known as “hangxiety,” as well as other mental health symptoms like depression and irritability

In the case of two-day hangovers, the effects of a night of drinking last not only until the following morning, but even until the day after that. That means if you go out drinking on Saturday night, you might still feel like garbage at work the following Monday—the last thing most people want to deal with. But until your body has finished processing the toxic byproducts of alcohol metabolism, rehydrating, and healing inflamed tissues, you’ll likely still be feeling the effects of your alcohol consumption, even if that process takes a full two days.

Causes of Two-Day Hangovers

There are quite a few factors that can contribute to the likelihood of a hangover lasting a full two days, some of which we don’t yet fully grasp—scientists mention that more research will be necessary to understand why some people have more severe hangovers than others. 

Factor #1: How Much Alcohol You Consume

One of the most significant factors, as you might have guessed, is the number of alcoholic beverages consumed during a drinking session. In general, the more alcohol you drink in a certain period of time, the more likely you are to experience more severe and prolonged hangover symptoms. And since alcohol is a diuretic that can cause serious dehydration, the amount of water and other non-alcoholic beverages you consume over the course of the night also impacts your hangover symptoms. The more you hydrate, the less severe your hangover tends to be.

Factor #2: Type of Alcohol Consumed

The type of alcohol you consume is another variable that makes a difference. Darker colored alcohol—such as whiskey, brandy, or red wine—typically contains higher concentrations of congeners (non-ethanol compounds like methanol that can make hangovers more severe). Stick to clear, low-congener alternatives like light beer, white wine, or vodka if this is a concern.

Factor #3: Your Age

In general, the older you get, the more likely you are to experience prolonged hangover symptoms. Most people’s livers are able to process the equivalent of about one drink’s worth of alcohol every hour or so, but this rate begins to decrease after the age of 30. If your hangovers are lasting longer than they did in your twenties, that’s a pretty normal progression to expect as part of aging.

Factor #4: Genetic Predisposition to Worse Hangovers

Although your personal choices can make a difference in your hangover symptoms, some factors are outside your control, including the genes that govern your alcohol processing. Unfortunately, some people are genetically more likely to suffer severe, prolonged hangover symptoms, even if they do their best to drink less than others. 

For instance, there’s research showing that those with a certain variation of the ALDH2 gene tend to have worse hangovers. This is because this gene variant reduces the body’s ability to break down the toxic acetaldehyde that contributes to hangover symptoms, so there’s more of it circulating in the body and causing these symptoms. There may be many other genes that impact alcohol processing as well, which future research is likely to uncover.

Factor #5: How Much and How Well You Sleep After Drinking Alcohol

Although alcohol is a depressant that makes you sleepy, it also disrupts sleep cycles in numerous ways, including by causing many people to wake up several hours after falling asleep and by disrupting restorative rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Unfortunately, this creates a vicious cycle when it comes to hangovers, because poor sleep can reduce your body’s ability to bounce back from drinking and can thus extend your hangover symptoms.

How to Reduce Your Chances of Two-Day Hangover Symptoms

You don’t have to quit drinking alcohol to avoid a two-day hangover. Instead, you can take measures before and after drinking to help your body manage alcohol processing:

Before You Begin Drinking: Take Capsulyte’s PREGAME Supplement

Formulated by Dr. Dan Nguyen, MD, MBA, PREGAME contains a blend of evidence-based ingredients that support your body’s ability to process alcohol:  

• NAC, which may reduce the severity of symptoms after drinking alcohol
• DHM, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory 
• Clovinol®, also an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory that can reduce post-drinking symptoms by an estimated 55 percent
• Siliphos®, a milk thistle-derived compound that may protect against cirrhosis related to alcoholic liver disease

After Drinking: Use HYDRATION to Rehydrate

It’s essential to prioritize rehydration as part of bouncing back from drinking alcohol, since dehydration is so often a major contributor to hangover symptoms. HYDRATION is another Capsulyte supplement that was specifically developed to support the body’s ability to recover from alcohol-related dehydration.  It contains Hydra 4G™, a mix of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium in optimal ratios. It also provides:

• B vitamins, which may help to regulate energy metabolism, red blood cell formation, and neurological function
• Liposomal Pureway C™, which may neutralize illness-causing free radicals and support immune function
• Zinc, another essential mineral that is integral to immune system function

To learn even more about how Capsulyte can help you recover from post-drinking symptoms, visit the Capsulyte blog for many more informative posts.