Getting sober is actually fairly easy. After you’ve consumed alcohol, your body will naturally reduce the amount in your bloodstream by 0.015% per hour. Since the legal limit is 0.08% for blood alcohol concentration, you can see that it may take time to get back down to this level. Someone who is at 0.10% could wait for an entire hour and still be over the legal limit to drive.
Of course, most people don’t actually want to wait this long. They want some sort of quick trick that will get them sober in the next 10 or 15 minutes so that they can drive home. One common myth that they may believe is that all they need to do is drink a cup of coffee. And coffee certainly can make you feel more awake due to the caffeine, while it may make you feel more alert if you had to walk from the bar to the coffee shop. You end up feeling sober, but are you?
It doesn’t change your BAC
Regardless of how you feel after a cup of coffee, your blood alcohol concentration isn’t going to be any lower simply because you drank that coffee. The time it took you to go get your coffee and consume it may allow your BAC to be slightly lower due to the standard reduction of 0.015% per hour noted above. But you cannot accelerate this process, and drinking coffee doesn’t make you sober any faster.
This is true for other myths, as well. Some people claim that a cold shower can make you sober, but it also really just wakes you up and makes you feel alert. If you’re looking for a quick way to get sober, remember that the only thing that really works is time.
Are you already facing charges?
If you do find yourself facing drunk driving allegations, then you may need to look into all of the legal steps to take at this time to protect your future.
