Unfortunately, we don't know how to cure them yet—or at least, nothing definitive.

不幸地是，我們還不知道該怎麼治療──或至少還沒有確切的方法。

But we know a lot more about how to make sure you do wake up with a hangover, so avoiding some of these behaviors will hopefully ease that morning-after headache.

但我們更確定如何早上起來會有宿醉，所以避免某些行為理想上應該可預防早晨起來時的頭痛。

This one may seem obvious, but you can't get an alcohol-induced hangover without alcohol, or more technically, ethanol.

這很顯而易見，你無法在沒有攝取酒精──學術一點來說，乙醇──就有酒精引起的宿醉。

And while that seems silly to say, booze is the only consistent theme in our definition of a hangover.

這雖然聽起來有點傻，但酒是造成我們宿醉的固定來賓。

That's because everyone's hangover symptoms are different—ranging from a little bit of queasiness to brain-melting headaches.

這是因為每個人宿醉的症狀都不一樣，舉凡些微的噁心感到彷彿要熔掉腦子的頭痛。

So when researchers study hangovers, they'll usually characterize it as a number of symptoms that follow alcohol consumption and metabolism—headaches, fatigue, nausea, and so on.

所以當研究人員在研究宿醉時，他們通常將一系列因酒精消化或代謝引起的症狀歸類為宿醉，包括頭痛、暈眩、噁心等等。

Then those symptoms have to get bad enough to disrupt your daily life.

而這些症狀需要嚴重到影響到你的日常起居。

But our methods for measuring hangovers, or predicting their occurrence, can be hit-or-miss.

但我們判斷宿醉的方法，或預測它們的出現，通常都是碰碰運氣。

By the time you wake up with your head full of regret, your body has already metabolized, or processed, the ethanol into sugar and a few byproducts.

在你滿心懊悔的起床時，你的身體早已代謝或處理了乙醇成糖及其他副產物。

And one of our current best guesses for what causes hangovers is a chemical called acetaldehyde, one of those ethanol byproducts.

而目前為止關於造成宿醉最好的猜測是一種化學物質叫乙醛，一種乙醇的副產物。

When we try to block the metabolism of acetaldehyde using drugs, symptoms get worse.

當我們使用藥物來阻擋乙醛代謝，宿醉症狀變得更嚴重。

This implies the higher the concentration of acetaldehyde in your body, the worse the symptoms.

這顯示乙醛在體內濃度越高，症狀會越嚴重。

But even that's not entirely certain, because acetaldehyde is metabolized into acetate really quickly.

但甚至這個理論也不是完全確定的，因為乙醛會被快速代謝成醋酸鹽。

So in 2010, researchers tested ethanol and acetate separately in rats, and tried to measure hangover-like headaches.

所以在 2010 年，研究人員在實驗鼠體內測試乙醇與醋酸鹽，並嘗試判斷類似宿醉的頭痛。

A few hours after giving the rats each substance, researchers applied different levels of pressure to the rats' heads and looked for some kind of response that indicated the rats felt the poke.

在給個別老鼠不同物質的幾個小時之後，研究人員對老鼠的頭部施加不同程度的壓力，並觀察某種會顯示出老鼠感受到壓力的現象。

And with both substances, it took less and less force to produce a headache.

而有攝取兩種物質的老鼠，需要造成頭痛的壓力越來越小。

But as far as we can tell, no one's tried feeding acetate to humans yet.

但就目前而言，沒有人嘗試在人身上使用醋酸鹽。

With such a fuzzy understanding behind the cause of hangovers, you can imagine how hard it is to study, especially in people.

在宿醉如此不明朗的成因之下，你可以想像研究宿醉有多難，尤其在人身上。

Research is often done by surveying people after a night of drinking, and variables like how long participants drank, and how strong their drinks were, vary wildly between studies.

通常研究的方式是調查喝了一整晚酒的人，並將喝了多長時間、喝了多烈的酒之類的變因納入研究考量。

Plus, even controlled studies are rarely blinded.

另外，甚至是控制變因的實驗也很少被盲測。

It's theoretically possible, but beyond a certain amount of alcohol, participants generally know they're getting drunk.

這在理論上是行得通的，但在攝取一定酒精之後，參與實驗者通常都知道自己要醉了。

Even though hangovers are so hard to study, we can look into things that affect the hangover itself.

雖然宿醉很難研究，但我們可以觀察會影響到宿醉本身的事情。

For instance, a common piece of advice says that you should never drink on an empty stomach—unless you want a hangover.

例如，一個很常見的建議就是不要空腹飲酒，除非你想宿醉。

And that's totally true!

而這完全是正確的！

In a classic 1994 study out of Sweden, researchers had ten men fast overnight, then gave them either a moderate dose of alcohol on an empty stomach, or fed them a hearty breakfast along with it.

在一個 1994 年由瑞士發表的經典研究指出，研究人員要求參與實驗者禁食一晚，然後在空腹的情況下給予他們適量的酒精或一頓暖心的早餐與一杯酒。

Sure enough, the participants who drank on an empty stomach felt drunker and had a higher blood alcohol concentration in the hours after drinking.

當然，空腹喝酒的參與者覺得比較醉，且在喝酒數小時之後血中酒精濃度較高。

The breakfast group also cleared alcohol from their blood more quickly, suggesting that the presence of food sped up alcohol metabolism.

早餐組代謝掉血中酒精的速度較快，指出食物能加快酒精代謝。

So make sure you have something in your stomach before drinking, and while you're at it, make sure to avoid smoking too.

所以請確保在你喝酒以前先墊個胃，而在喝酒時同時避免抽菸。

I mean, that's just good advice in general.

其實，這在平時也是個好的建議。

Researchers writing in 2013 had college students keep a log of their alcohol and tobacco use for eight weeks alongside a record of their hangover symptoms.

研究人員在 2013 年要求大學學生持續紀錄八週酒精與煙的使用並同時記錄他們宿醉的症狀。

Not surprisingly, hangover symptoms were the worst on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

不意外地，宿醉症狀在禮拜六與禮拜天的早上最為嚴重。

But they were also worse after smoking cigarettes.

但症狀在吸菸之後也很嚴重。

And the number of cigarettes mattered—as long as the participants drank above a certain amount of alcohol, more smoking lent itself to more severe hangover symptoms on average.

吸菸的數量也很重要──只要受試者在喝了一定量的酒之後，抽越多煙會有越嚴重的宿醉症狀。

So even if you only smoke when you drink, you're still more likely to suffer the next morning.

所以就算你只在你喝酒時抽菸，隔天早上你還是很有可能會受苦。

The last thing that can make a hangover particularly nasty is the non-ethanol part of your drink—a group of chemicals called congeners.

最後一件會讓你宿醉很慘的是酒非酒精的那個部分── 一組叫同屬物的化學物質。

These are things other than ethanol that are produced during beverage fermentation, like acetone, tannins, and other chemicals.

這些是飲料發酵時除了酒精之外所產生的物質，如丙酮、單寧及其他化學物質。

And drinks with more congeners have been shown to lead to worse hangovers.

而含有越多同屬物的飲料顯示為引起越嚴重的宿醉。

For example, bourbon has a higher concentration of congeners than vodka.

舉例來說，波本威士忌的同屬物濃度比伏特加高。

Bourbon has also been shown to produce more severe hangovers than vodka.

波本威士忌比起伏特加也會引起較嚴重的宿醉。

But the science is actually kind of mixed.

但這門學問似乎有點不統一。

For example, researchers in older studies had pointed to one particular congener—methanol—for hangover symptoms.

舉例來說，研究人員在較舊的研究指出一種特定的同屬物「甲醇」會以引起宿醉現象。

But more recent experiments have shown otherwise.

但較新的實驗又指出了不同看法。

For example, a 2017 study showed that urine methanol concentration was not correlated with hangover severity.

例如，一個在 2017 年的研究指出尿液中的甲醇濃度與宿醉嚴重程度無關。

We're talking self-reported hangover severity, mind you, so it's hard to measure anyway.

我們指自己回報的宿醉嚴重程度，容我提醒一下，所以也很難測量其嚴重程度。

So at the end of the day, to avoid a hangover, that common sense advice is the best we've got: skip cigarettes, not meals.

所以整體來說，要避免宿醉，喝酒前的小常識還是最有用的：避免抽菸，不要空腹。

Or don't drink in the first place.

或者就不要喝酒。

Otherwise, you might be in for one heck of a headache.

不然你可能會在劇烈頭痛中受苦。

Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow, which was brought to you with the help of our patrons.

謝謝收看本集的 SciShow，與我們的贊助人一同呈現給您。

These awesome humans help make what we do possible.

這些超棒的人幫助我們完成一切可能。

And if you join, you can score sweet perks, too!

如果你加入，也會有所收穫的！

If you're interested, check out patreon.com/scishow

如果你感興趣，請洽 patreon.com/scishow。