Sherry and port offer the quickest route to Christmas hangover - and will give you a bigger headache than vodka, scientist warns

For many families, the Christmas tradition of grandma sipping her favourite festive tipple of  sherry guarantees she will nod off in front of the television by the early afternoon.

While her slumber may be welcomed by relatives, scientists can now reveal that her penchant for fortified wine will mean she has the most acute headache come Boxing Day.

Dr Hal Sosabowski, Professor of Public Understanding of Science at Brighton University says that Yuletide classics sherry and port are the “optimum way of getting very drunk very fast”.

“It is to do with the concentration,” he told BBC Radio Five Live.

“Beer, for example is about five per cent maximum. You have to drink quite a lot of volume to get drunk.

“At the other end of the spectrum you’ve got whisky, which is about 40 per cent, and what that does, is that burning sensation in your stomach stops it being taken up.

“Somewhere in the middle is sherry and port, and the optimum way of getting very drunk very fast is that because it’s about 20 per cent and it doesn’t inhibit its own uptake.”

Offering advice to drinkers ahead of the alcohol fuelled Christmas period, Dr Sosabowski explained why a glass of fizz often goes straight to the head.

“If you’ve got alcohol which is carbonated like prosecco or champagne, that increases its uptake, so you can feel the first glass of champagne working on you within maybe 30 or 40 seconds. You feel like you’ve had a drink because the carbonation causes it to be taken up quicker.”

To combat the inevitable hangover, Dr Sosabowski busted the myth that a glass of water between alcoholic drinks can help.

“You need to be careful about that, because if you’re drinking strong drinks followed by water, what you’re doing is diluting it, to that terrible 20 per cent,” he said.

“And don’t have chasers. Don’t ever have a pint of lager and whisky chaser because you’re turning the four per cent lager into effectively 10 per cent, which is right up there.”

The safest thing to do, he says, is drink a large glass of water before you go to bed. Alcohol has a dehydrating effect because of an increased number of trips to the bathroom, so water at the end of the night lessens that impact.

And if you want to drink the hard stuff, without writing off the next day, vodka should be the spirit of choice.

“Vodka is literally just water and alcohol. ‘Voda’ is Russian for water, and it’s very ‘pure’ so it’s a little bit more forgiving than something like whisky or brandy,” said the Professor.

Offering final advice ahead of a busy season, Dr Sosabowski said: “the only way to stop being drunk is to stop drinking.”