How to stop craving alcohol

Last updated: 28 October 2026

To stop craving alcohol, let the urge pass instead of arguing with it, and give your mind and body something else to do for a few minutes. The US National Institutes of Health calls urges to drink "short-lived, predictable, and controllable". In a 2015 week-long study of 31 students, the 15 assigned to play Tetris for three minutes when a craving came reported an average 13.9-point drop in craving strength on a 0 to 100 scale, with alcohol and other cravings counted together.

What can you do when a craving hits?

Leave the tempting situation if you can, call someone you trust, or take a walk. These come from the NIH guidance on cravings, which also suggests a shower, reminding yourself why you want to change, questioning the thought behind the urge, or simply riding it out; pick the one you can use right now.

Studies of what helps in the moment are small and short, and most measured how strong the craving felt, not whether people drank.

What people did	What the study found	Who and the limit
Played Tetris for 3 minutes when a craving came	craving strength fell by an average of 13.9 points on a 0 to 100 scale (2015 field study)	31 students over one week, 15 of them playing; the average combines alcohol and other cravings, it is not an alcohol-only figure
A four-minute visual memory task, tapping a sequence of blocks	urge-questionnaire scores improved compared with a group doing a matched task without the memory load; a separate visual rating of craving showed no significant effect (2026 randomised study)	50 heavy drinkers randomised, 45 analysed; craving measured before and right after, with no longer follow-up
One session of exercise	a moderate fall in craving compared with before or with control conditions (2026 review of six studies)	adults aged 18 to 29 with heavy or problem drinking; short-term effect only; the authors call the evidence limited
11 minutes of mindfulness instruction, or of relaxation	craving fell in both groups right after; at one week, only the mindfulness group showed a statistically significant drop in self-reported drinking (2017 randomised study)	68 drinkers at risk of harm; both groups got instructions for further practice on their own; one week of follow-up

The 2026 study authors suggest that a visual memory task works by interrupting the way thoughts about alcohol are built up into a lasting urge.

How long does an alcohol craving last?

The NIH describes cravings as short-lived, but it gives no fixed duration. Its guidance suggests treating the urge as normal and temporary, and says it "will soon crest like an ocean wave and pass."

Alcohol Change UK's advice on cravings adds that focusing on a craving tends to make it last longer, which is one reason a distraction helps.

What triggers a craving to drink?

Most cravings have a trigger, either something around you or something inside you. The NIH guidance splits them into external triggers, such as people, places, things or a time of day linked to drinking, and internal ones, such as a thought, a feeling or a physical sensation that makes the urge seem to appear from nowhere.

External triggers are easier to predict and to plan around. The same guidance suggests tracking your urges for a couple of weeks to see the pattern: when they come, where you are, and what happened just before.

Does planning ahead make cravings easier?

Yes, mostly by keeping the trigger out of reach and deciding the next step before the urge arrives. The NIH guidance suggests keeping little or no alcohol at home and adds that avoiding tempting situations is often temporary, until the urges feel easier to manage.

A plan in the form when X happens, I do Y is one way to fill the moment, though its effect on drinking was small. A 2023 meta-analysis of 16 studies found that such plans reduced weekly drinking only a little, and the effect faded over time. There are more ideas for planning the usual drinking hour in the tips for Dry January.

Does picturing tomorrow morning help with a craving?

No study has tested whether picturing tomorrow morning weakens an alcohol craving. What research has tested is picturing the future in general, which made later rewards easier to wait for, and in one small trial went with less self-reported drinking.

In a 2022 meta-analysis of 47 studies, vividly imagining a positive future made people more willing to wait for a later, larger reward; neutral or negative imagery showed no clear effect, and the studies measured reward choices, not drinking.

Among 52 adults with moderate or severe drinking problems who completed a small 2022 trial, those practising future-event imagery for two weeks reported cutting about 2.2 drinks a day, against 0.5 in the comparison group. Breath measurements showed no statistically significant difference between the groups, and the trial did not test a next-morning picture. For how a US standard drink compares with UK units, see how much alcohol is too much.

If your first drink usually comes around six, after work, the craving often shows up the moment you walk into the kitchen, coat still on, with the day not yet behind you. That craving is just a feeling. Turn your attention outward, to the room and the next thing to do, and let the person who wakes up tomorrow judge the hour. If you want to try picturing tomorrow, choose the morning you would like to have, which is mostly about what is missing: you wake without a heavy head, you do not reach for your phone to check what you sent, and the early worry some people call hangxiety is not there.

When is it time to talk to a doctor?

If urges stay very hard to manage, or you see no progress after a few weeks, the NIH guidance advises talking to a health professional. A doctor can look at the whole picture and explain what other support is available.

If you drink heavily every day, stopping all at once can be risky: talk to a doctor first. You can also contact a local support service, and in an emergency, your local emergency services.

Quick answers

Does craving alcohol mean you have a problem?

Not on its own. Alcohol Change UK says a craving "doesn't mean you've got a problem" and calls it a normal reaction to change.

Why do I crave alcohol at the same time every day?

A time of day can be a trigger in itself. The NIH guidance lists times of day among the external cues linked to drinking, next to people, places and things.

Do cravings get weaker over time?

They tend to, with practice. The NIH guidance says urges lose strength as you get used to handling them, and you gain confidence with the ones that remain.

What if I give in to a craving?

Having a drink does not mean you have failed. Alcohol Change UK answers that question plainly: "Nope, you've just had a drink."

How can Morning Mirror help with the evening craving?

Morning Mirror is a drink less app for the evening: three minutes of audio before the first drink that show you tomorrow morning, so you decide from there. It is meant for the moment around six, before the first drink is poured.