In Defense of the Daytime Drinker

The other day a friend said to me “we are young, we drink at night.” For me, that was strange because I drink nearly anytime in the day. But this got me thinking about why it is more appropriate to drink in the evening as opposed to during the daytime, when maybe, just maybe, it is better to be drunk during the day. Is it better to be daytime drunk, or night time drunk? So thus begins my journey into drunken bliss to find out the truth.

I’m a huge wine drinker, so I like to think that wine drunk is the best kind of drunk, and as it turns out wine is good for you (in moderation). Over the past few years, research has shown that there are health benefits to wine, especially red wine. Now that’s not to say that we should all be drinking a few bottles of red a day, although that would be awesome, but I have never read a single thing about the health benefits of beer...but I will not discount how lovely beer can be. Nonetheless, moderate wine drinking, according to medicalnewstoday.com, can help reduce the risk of depression, aid in the prevention of colon cancer, breast cancer, and dementia, and it has anti-aging properties.

I would like to think that cocktails have some health benefits to them too; most of them have juice in them so they must be right? As much as I love a nice Sex on the Beach or a Piña Colada and their ability to mask the awful taste of cheap booze, they can be the worst; All that sugar that adds to the deliciousness, can, unfortunately lead to your head in the toilet by the night’s end. But what happens when we drink during the day?

Many people, such as myself, enjoy a nice weekend brunch, with a nice assortment of food and most of all, the wonderful excuse to get drunk in the middle of the day. I usually indulge a few mimosas, which gives me a nice amount of buzz, but why not get my drunk on in the middle of the day, especially when I don’t have much to do? The idea of the darty— the daytime party— seems partially brilliant because it offers the chance of just sleeping through the worst of your hangover, but I will take one for the team to test out this theory. With this in mind, I will embark on this daytime drinking adventure, as I weigh the benefits and downfalls of getting drunk during the day, because maybe the day drinker deserves recognition for their genius.

Since I could not stomach the idea of drinking before 11 am, I began my first cocktail around 11:30am and kept it going until around 7pm, nursing them until I reached a good amount of drunk, carefully walking a few feet away from that line called “blacking out.”

I must admit that I am proud of myself for surviving this drunk adventure, and actually being able to stomach alcohol throughout a good chunk of the day. I envy those people who survive “dages” and then can still make it to the bar at night; I was ready for bed around 9 pm, which could be seen in both positive and negative ways.

The effects of the alcohol during the day, of course, differs little from the effects at night, but there is something pleasant about getting drunk during the day. If it was feasible, I would like to be drunk during the day more often. Why you ask? Well let me tell you about the day that followed:

For the first time in months my roommate went to bed before 4:00 am and woke up before noon. Needless to say, I was shocked. I woke up, on a Monday morning, and felt refreshed and immediately got ready for my day. Sleeping right through my hangover really helped to make that Monday morning bearable. On the other hand, I did waste a Sunday getting drunk, but is time really wasted when you’re getting wasted (thank you Asher Roth for those words of wisdom)?

Daytime drinking on a Sunday was the perfect way to end the weekend, as long as you don’t have a ton of things to do. However, if you are bored one day, and you want to do nothing else but hang out with friends, drink and maybe make food (or have delivery), then by all means go ahead and dive into the wonderful world of daytime drinking. I used to slightly judge those who would drink for most of the day, but now I realize the fun that it opens up. Of course, when I did this experiment I was in a city with ample public transportation, so if you have to drive, then drink responsibly or don’t drive if you have had too much to drink.

So, good for those of you who drink during the day, don’t you let anyone judge you; they are just jealous that they aren’t doing the same. Some may say that I wasted a Sunday, but I think Sundays are meant to be that way anyway. So go get drunk before the sun goes down because you will be grateful for it when you wake up, not hungover, the next day, and you will have had a great day, blissfully drunk, realizing the genius of the daytime drinker. I even think that you can make some Sunday spring cleaning fun with a few shots of vodka in your system. Some people may call you an alcoholic, but you can just tell them that you are embracing the European lifestyle, or you can simply tell them to take a shot.