After the summer’s promising start turned to soggy disappointment, many Brits will be kicking themselves for every second of sunshine they will have missed this year. But some will have none but themselves to blame, with research claiming that the drinkers among us lost an average of 22 hours of summer to hangovers.
Around a quarter of people confessed that the comedown from a night of heavy drinking had stopped them from going outside to enjoy what good weather we did have – rising to two in five among people aged 18-34.
Many had even cancelled plans for an afternoon because they were nursing a sore head, with 23% of that younger group of respondents saying that hangovers had led to their missing days out with family and friends, according to a survey of 2,000 adults commissioned by Cancer Research UK.
Each hangover lasted an average of six hours and 30 minutes, the research found, with one in eight who had suffered one admitting that their most recent lasted more than half a day.
Researchers calculated the overall amount of summer sun lost on the basis of the estimated length of the respondents’ most recent hangovers, and the number of times they had had one since the start of the summer.
Some of those hangovers could, however, have been endured on rainy days. People who hadn’t had hangovers at all or who didn’t drink were filtered out of the final results.
Cancer Research commissioned the survey to mark the return of its Dryathlon, which challenges people to raise money for the charity by staying sober for a month. It usually takes place in January, but the charity is now asking people to test their self-restraint in September too.
Anthony Newman, director of marketing at Cancer Research UK, said: “Now the sun appears to have gone in and September’s almost here, it’s the perfect time for us to claim back those summer hours lost to the dreaded hangover and take on Dryathlon.
“Not only will you feel bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and able to make the most of every minute – you’ll be raising money to help beat cancer.”
