What should you drink before bed after drinking?
Updated: Jun 24
Short answer: Drink water with electrolytes before bed, not just water on its own. Alcohol is a diuretic, so a night out leaves you down both fluid and the sodium, potassium, and magnesium that went out with it. Aim for roughly 500 ml of water with about 1000 mg of sodium, 200 mg of potassium, and 60 mg of magnesium before you sleep. Plain water rehydrates slowly and gets urinated back out; water with electrolytes stays put.
Why plain water is not enough
Alcohol suppresses a hormone called vasopressin, the one that tells your kidneys to hold on to water. With that signal turned down, your body dumps fluid faster than you replace it. Every standard drink can pull out more water than the drink contained. That is why you wake up at 4 a.m. with a dry mouth and a headache.
When you only drink water, you dilute the sodium that is left in your blood and then pass most of it through your kidneys within an hour or two. You go to the bathroom, lose more sodium and potassium on the way out, and end up no better off. Water needs something to hold it in place. That something is electrolytes.
What to drink, specifically
Before bed, the simple version is one large glass of water, around 500 ml, with a measured dose of electrolytes mixed in. A useful target is about 1000 mg of sodium, 200 mg of potassium, and 60 mg of magnesium. Sodium is the one that matters most for holding water; potassium and magnesium cover what else left during the night.
If you want to be thorough, drink one glass with electrolytes before bed and leave a second glass of water on the nightstand for whenever you wake up. You will probably wake up. The glass should be there.
How much should you actually drink?
You do not need a litre of water sloshing around while you try to sleep. Around 500 ml before bed is enough to start rehydrating without sending you straight back to the bathroom. The electrolytes do the real work here. A dose with about 1 gram of sodium helps your body keep the fluid you just drank instead of filtering it out.
Overdoing plain water can backfire. Drinking a litre or more of water with no sodium can thin your blood sodium further, which is the opposite of what you want. Measured fluid plus electrolytes beats a flood of plain water.
Does sugar help or hurt?
Most "hydration" drinks marketed for nights out are mostly sugar. A sports drink can carry 30 to 40 grams of sugar per bottle and only a token amount of sodium. The sugar does not help you rehydrate before bed and adds calories you did not need. What you want is the sodium, potassium, and magnesium without the dessert. Zero sugar, zero sweeteners, zero glycemic impact is the cleaner option.
What about magnesium and sleep?
Alcohol disrupts sleep quality and increases how much magnesium and potassium you lose overnight. Including 60 mg of magnesium in your before-bed glass replaces some of what the night took. This is a hydration and replacement point, not a sleep cure. The goal is simply to put back what alcohol pulled out, so you wake up closer to baseline.
A boring routine that works
The night you are drinking: one glass of water with electrolytes before bed, plus a second glass on the nightstand. The morning after: another glass with electrolytes when you wake up, before coffee. Coffee is also a diuretic, so leading with water and sodium gives you a better starting point. None of this is exciting. It is just sodium, potassium, magnesium, and water in the right order.
Common versions of this question
What is the best thing to drink before bed after a night of drinking? Water with electrolytes. Around 500 ml of water carrying about 1000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, and 60 mg magnesium, so the fluid stays in instead of passing straight through.
Should I drink electrolytes or just water after drinking alcohol? Electrolytes with the water. Plain water on its own dilutes your remaining sodium and gets urinated out. Sodium is what helps your body hold the fluid.
How much water should I drink before bed when drunk? About 500 ml is enough. More than a litre of plain water can thin your blood sodium further. Pair the water with electrolytes rather than chasing volume.
Do electrolytes before bed stop a hangover? They are not a cure. Replacing the fluid and electrolytes alcohol pulls out simply gets you closer to baseline overnight, which is a better starting point than waking up dehydrated.
The boring conclusion
After a night out, the smart thing to drink before bed is water with a full dose of electrolytes: about 1000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium, and 60 mg magnesium in roughly 500 ml of water. No sugar, no flavour, no theatrics. That is exactly what Boring Electrolytes is: three ingredients, full clinical doses, nothing else, at about €0.40 per serving. Mix one teaspoon into a glass before bed, leave a second glass nearby, and let your body do the rest.
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