If you’ve woken up after a night out feeling worse for wear, there are ways to manage your feelings – even if there’s no way to rid yourself of hangxiety except by not drinking in the first place.

1. Sleep, sleep, sleep

A period of drinking often goes hand in hand with a late night and poor sleep, which can make it even harder for the brain to function properly. That’s why you tend to feel more emotional after a poor night’s sleep – the amygdala, the brain’s main emotional processing centre, goes into overdrive.

“Our brains have evolved to interpret sleep deprivation as a potentially dangerous situation, so the amygdala, which is the part of the brain which switches on the ‘fight or flight’ response – gets more sensitive,” sleep expert Dr Sophie Bostock previously told Stylist. “This means we become much more emotional, and even small problems feel more stressful.”

While allowing yourself to sleep might not get rid of your anxiety completely, it’ll stop any lingering tiredness from making the symptoms worse.

2. Take some ibuprofen

Because inflammation is one of the driving forces of hangxiety, taking some ibuprofen could help to ease the inflammation and stop symptoms from worsening as a result.

3. Get outside

Hangxiety isn’t solely a chemical issue – it’s also a psychological one. The morning after a night out often comes with regrets and worries about what you said last night, and this can add to the levels of anxiety and jitteriness you’re already experiencing.

Getting outside won’t correct the chemicals in your brain, but it will give you some headspace and distract you more than lying in bed tossing and turning will.

Hangxiety: this is why you feel anxious after a night of drinking – and no, it’s not just to do with regret