The hardest part about most New Year’s resolutions is getting them to stick. But if your resolution is to curb your drinking habit, just one month of good behavior should do the trick.
Last year, 816 UK residents participated in a “Dry January” study, wherein they abstained from drinking alcohol for the first month of 2018. A team of researchers from the University of Sussex asked them to take three self-reported surveys: one on registration day, one during the first week of February and a final follow-up in August.
Eight months later, they found that participants were still drinking less on average — about one fewer day of drinking per week. Moreover, they were drinking about one fewer glass of alcohol when they did drink, and getting drunk one time less per month.
“The simple act of taking a month off alcohol helps people drink less in the long term,” says University of Sussex psychologist Dr. Richard de Visser. “Interestingly, these changes in alcohol consumption have also been seen in the participants who didn’t manage to stay alcohol-free for the whole month — although they are a bit smaller. This shows that there are real benefits to just trying to complete Dry January.”
The decline in drinking had other benefits too, with more than half of the participants reporting better sleep (71 percent), more energy (67 percent), weight loss (58 percent) and even a clearer complexion (54 percent). Most claim to have generally improved their health overall and, of course, saved money.
Researchers found the psychological impacts truly impressive: 80 percent of participants say they now feel more in control of their drinking, while 71 percent realized they don’t need alcohol to have a good time.
“Put simply, Dry January can change lives,” says Dr. Richard Piper, CEO of Alcohol Change UK, a charity organization involved in collecting data for the study. “Being alcohol-free for 31 days shows us that we don’t need alcohol to have fun, to relax, to socialize.”