Interoceptive phenomenology of hangover: A proof of concept for bodily mapping in naturalistic study designs.

BACKGROUND

Alcohol hangover is the most frequently reported adverse consequence of excessive drinking and can predict future alcohol use. While standard hangover measures capture physiological symptoms, they overlook how these sensations are perceived. We introduce a proof-of-concept for bodily mapping in naturalistic studies by characterizing hangover phenomenology in individuals who drink heavily.

METHODS

Participants (N = 34) completed a baseline assessment. Then, using the emBODY tool, participants marked regions of activation and deactivation during several hangover sessions to generate topographical maps. These maps quantified the extent and intensity of hangover bodily sensations. Participants reported prior-night subjective intoxication and current hangover severity. Pre-registered linear mixed models and correlational analyses assessed within-subject associations with session-level variables and between-subject associations with individual drinking profiles.

RESULTS

Topographical maps revealed hangover-related activation in the head, chest and abdomen and deactivation in the lower limbs. Intensity, but not extent, of bodily sensations was significantly associated with hangover severity, independent of subjective intoxication. Participants with high trait-level drinking scores reported more intense bodily sensations, more frequent hangovers, and stronger associations between sensation intensity and hangover severity, which also increased with age.

CONCLUSIONS

Bodily mapping captures meaningful interoceptive patterns linked to subjective hangover severity and individual drinking behavior, offering new insights into the somatic processes underlying vulnerability to alcohol misuse. Our results offer proof-of-concept establishing the usefulness and feasibility of body mapping in naturalistic designs. They also underscore its potential as a scalable, intuitive tool for investigating embodied processes in addiction research, where interoceptive dimensions remain underexplored.