Coffee won't cure your hangover, and may lead to poor decision-making - study

Coffee may wake you up, but it won’t sober you up, a new study shows. Researchers have concluded that while drinking coffee after consuming alcohol may make you feel more awake, it doesn’t actually make you more sober - and that combination could lead to poor decision-making.

“Coffee may reduce the sedative effects of alcohol, which could give the false impression that people are not as intoxicated as they really are.

Gould added that people who have only consumed alcohol are more likely to feel “tired and intoxicated,” and more importantly, acknowledge that they’re drunk.

The researchers, who published their findings in the journal “Behavioral Neuroscience,” first compared the drunk behavior of mice to that of mice given only a saline solution. The drunk and sober mice were tested on their ability to learn a maze while trying to avoid bright lights or sounds. The drunk mice did significantly less well.

After being drunk, the mice were given the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee. While the caffeine and alcohol combination seemed to make the mice less anxious, it failed to reverse the negative effects that alcohol had on them learning the maze.

Alcohol also calmed the “caffeine jitters,” reports WebMD.com, which made the mice less able to avoid potential threats. In a press release, Gould concluded that “the bottom line is that, despite the appeal of being able to stay up all night and drink, all evidence points to serious risks associated with caffeine-alcohol combinations.”