Emotional hangovers are a very real thing, scientists say

If you were out on New Year's Eve, there's a chance you might not feel like doing much today. But alcohol isn't the only thing that can give you a hangover.

Having an emotional experience often helps us remember events more clearly, and scientists have finally found out why.

It’s because emotional experiences can cause physiological and internal brain states that remain afterwards.

This emotional hangover can influence how we perceive and react to experiences, much like a normal hangover when any little thing make us hide under the duvet and nestle into that empty pizza box.

Researchers at New York University asked a group of adults to view a series of images designed to create an emotional response, before viewing some non-emotional images afterwards.

Another group did this in the opposite order.

They found that the first group had a better memory of the neutral images, proving that we remember things better after an emotional event.

The researchers say this is because we can experience a “carry-over” of feeling emotional.

So if you experience anything particularly emotion-inducing when you’re also drinking, watch out for that double hangover.

Maybe that means you can have double the fry-ups too?

More: Scientists may have just found the secret to hangover-free wine