It’s the day after St. Patrick’s Day and if you had the craic and drowned the shamrock a little too much during yesterday’s celebrations, chances are you’re suffering the consequences today.

So how are you feeling? Are you wide awake and fresh as a daisy? Or do you feel like you’ve just been dragged through a ditch, backwards, six times overs?

The good news is that today is a Bank Holiday, so you have a good few hours to rest up and get yourself back into tip-top condition for work tomorrow.

If you need a little help however, here five things you can do to ensure that you have the perfect post-Paddy’s Day recovery.

How bad do you really feel?

Step 1: Assess the damage

On a scale of one to 10 how bad is your hangover? Do you just have a slight headache or are you likely to get sick if someone sticks a full Irish breakfast under your nose right now?

If you’re not too bad, get yourself a pint of water, some painkillers and go back to bed for a snooze for the next hour.

If you feel like there’s a cow tap-dancing in your skull or if you can’t leave your bed without wanting to be violently ill, beg someone else to get you the water and painkillers and try to sleep it off.

Step 2: Get soaking

We know that food is probably the last thing on your mind right now but unfortunately it’s also the only thing that will make you feel better.

When you feel relatively un-nauseous, get some tea and toast into you. This will help to soak up any alcohol that’s still left in your stomach. You may feel a little sick at first but it will get better, promise. Just keep your meal choices light and your tummy should be okay.

Step 3: Distract yourself

You may think that nothing can distract you from the horror of your hangover but you’d be surprise. In fact, simply switching your focus to something else can actually make you feel better faster.

Once you’ve slept up and had something to eat, crawl back into bed or crawl downstairs to the sofa and watch some television (we recommend Girls – it’s so funny/shocking it’s perfect as a means of distraction). Or maybe you feel like reading. Do something, anything as long as it gets your mind off how bad you feel.

If you have a headache, take some painkillers when you wake up

Step 4: Drink a lot

It sounds counter-intuitive but one of the fastest ways to get rid of a hangover is to drink even more. Although thankfully, this time you’re not required to drink alcohol. Drink as many liquids as you can. Ideally you should be sloshing down pints of water, but if you want something with a little more flavour try a cup of tea or some fruit juice. If possible stay away from fizzy drinks because they’ll just aggravate your stomach (not good if your tummy is a bit sick).

Step 5: Get some air

When you feel strong enough to leave the sofa/bed, toddle downstairs to your backdoor or your nearest window, open it and take a few deep breaths of fresh air. Fresh air will help you to get rid of that rotten headache and will hopefully perk you up a bit too.