I awoke suddenly at 6 am this morning with an overwhelming urge for sugary, sugary fruit juice, a large Domino’s pizza and to stand under a healing waterfall, if such a thing exists.

It could only mean one thing. The hangover fairy had been, and today would be a struggle.

Brandwatchers across Brighton (the home of Brandwatch HQ) were stirring, bleary eyed and feeling existential. A post-company meeting celebration had seemed like a great idea twelve hours ago. Friday-style drinks on a Tuesday night – what could possibly go wrong?

Look how happy we were. Now the Tuaca grin of our CMO Will McInnes is merely a memory.

Making our way to the office this morning, the Brandwatch React team weren’t feeling too pretty. Amid the knowing nods to colleagues with their heads in their hands, an unjustified annoyance at the non-drinkers and fresh faced people who didn’t go out last night and a grateful trip to the communal fridge for hangover supplies, we had an idea.

Today we would find out which day is the most hungover day of the year and how other people deal with hangovers, using social data.

If you’re hungover and reading this, don’t worry. There are no triggering references to alcohol below this point.

Unlimited Historical Hangover Data

This project is what Unlimited Historical Data was made for.

After writing our hangover query (mentions of “I’m” or “I am” or “im” near “hungover”, excluding RTs, Twitter only), three years of historical tweets were quickly backfilled. Our data focused on 1 February 2015 – 25 July 2017, in which we found nearly 750,000 hangover cases.

We were then able to look at those mentions over time, by day of the week and time of day.