But Officer, I Slept It Off !

There is an old folk song that asks the question, “What do you do with a drunken sailor?” The answer was “Put him to bed until he’s sober.” Bed is probably the best place for someone who has had too much to drink, but when does that person become sober? The answer might surprise you.
We live in Wisconsin, where .08 is the limit for blood alcohol level. That limit does not necessarily mean that people are not impaired at lower levels. Half that limit or maybe less is all it takes. Let’s take a look at one scenario and see just what it takes to “sleep it off.”
Business Against Drunk Drivers Inc. (BADD) published a brochure illustrating the time it takes to “sleep off” a night on the town. The scenario presented was about a business man having a few drinks after work. The person starts at 6:00 and has two drinks an hour before leaving at 1:00 a.m. Two drinks means the average 1-ounce shot of 100-proof liquor, or a 1.25-ounce shot of 80 proof liquor, or a 12-ounce beer, or a 5-ounce glass of wine. He has the good sense to get a ride, because his alcohol concentration (AC) is .20, a very high level. BADD warns that the level is not unusual, and that most drunk driving arrests are for a level of .175. By 2:00 a.m. he’s in bed, fighting off the “whirlies.”
Here’s where things get interesting. According to the brochure, his AC at bed time is .190, well over the legal amount. As he begins to “sleep it off” his level at 3:00 a.m. is .175. The average rate that alcohol is eliminated from the blood stream is .015 per hour.
An hour later he wakes up with a headache and gets some aspirin, but his blood alcohol level is still .160, way over the limit. By 5:00 a.m., while he’s asleep, the level is .145, and by 6:00 a.m. when his alarm sounds to get up for the day, he rolls out of bed with a level of .130, hardly sober.
He fumbles with his car keys and takes off for work at 7:00, with a blood alcohol level of .115, still drunk. He manages to make it to work by 8:00 and he begins his day legally intoxicated with a .1 level. He is still trying to pull himself together and gets a coffee at 9:00 a.m. and his level measures at .085, still legally intoxicated according to the laws of many states, even though he had his last drink eight hours ago.
At 10:00 he leaves for this first meeting of the day at .07, still under the influence. He is still feeling shaky at 11:00, when his level is at .055 and by noon, he is still under the influence of alcohol at .04, 11 hours after he finished drinking.
You probably have had experience with people who come to your place of business smelling of stale booze. It’s not because they had a two martini lunch. They are still clearing the alcohol out of their system from the night before.
American culture has always praised those who could “hold their liquor.” But considering how long it takes to get sober after holding all of that liquor, maybe we should rethink the idea of praising that person.