Tips for Dry January

Last updated: 22 October 2026

For Dry January, plan three things: what you will drink, what you will do at your usual drinking time, and how you will handle invitations. If your first drink usually comes after work around 6 pm, start with that hour, because that is where your plan has to work.

When is Dry January actually hard?

If your usual drinking time feels difficult, make a plan for that part of the evening. If it is getting home from work, the plan covers the kitchen, the fridge and the first drink that used to mark the end of the day, so you plan for one hour instead of holding on for 31 days.

If your weekend routine is different, make a separate plan for the first weekend.

What should you drink instead?

Keep the glass and change what is in it. If the ritual was a cold glass in your hand and a long breath on the couch, you can keep all of that: the same glass, ice, a slice of lime, sparkling water or an alcohol-free beer or wine, made properly rather than poured as an afterthought.

A 2026 randomised trial assigned 278 employees to receive free alcohol-free drinks for 12 weeks or no drinks provision. The drinks reduced total alcohol consumption, mainly through fewer drinking days; the trial did not test the glass or the timing of the shopping. Check the strength on the label, even on drinks called alcohol-free: in the UK that word can still mean up to 0.05% alcohol. Buy what you need on the way home, so the choice is made before you reach the fridge.

How do you plan the evening?

Decide in advance what you will do at your usual drinking time, and tie it to a cue: "When I get home, I make my drink and go water the plants." Plans written as when X happens, I do Y help people reach goals in general, with a medium to large effect across 94 tests.

For drinking the effect is smaller. A 2023 meta-analysis of 16 studies found that such plans cut weekly drinking only a little, so treat the plan as a way to fill the hour, not as the whole answer. Pick one thing you actually enjoy, not one you think you ought to do: a walk, a shower, cooking, a call, a game.

What do you say when you go out?

Choose what you will drink all evening before you leave, and tell your friends early that you are taking January off alcohol. If you can, suggest a place with drinks you actually want.

Have one short sentence ready in case anyone asks, such as "I'm driving" or "I'm doing Dry January". Evenings can also turn social without warning, with a call, old friends in the area or people coming over, and the same plan works: say it early. You may find that the people you enjoy over a drink are just as good company over a glass of something else.

What if you have a drink?

Keep going. The organisers' own advice is that "there is no need to reset or drop out", and among 857 participants in a 2016 study, even those who did not finish the month were drinking on fewer days half a year later.

The next evening is a new evening, not day one again, and it gets the same plan as the others.

How does picturing tomorrow morning help?

Picturing a specific, positive future can make a later reward easier to wait for. In a meta-analysis of 47 studies, vivid positive future imagery shifted choices towards later rewards, while neutral or negative imagery showed no clear effect; the outcome was a choice between sooner and later rewards, not drinking.

The research on drinking itself is early. Among 52 adults with moderate or severe drinking problems who completed a small two-week trial, those practising future-event imagery reported a larger fall in daily drinking than the comparison group, but breath measurements showed no significant difference, and the trial did not test a next-morning exercise. If you want to try it, make tomorrow concrete: not "I'll feel better", but the actual scene, waking before the alarm, no nausea, no scrolling back through your messages to check what you said, coffee you can taste.

Quick answers

Do I have to start on January 1?

No. The campaign has a 31-day version that starts on your own date, and a month of evenings is a month of evenings.

Where can I get support during Dry January?

Alcohol Change UK offers daily emails and its own app for the month, and you can ask one person to join you for evenings without alcohol. If you want to talk to someone about your drinking, speak to a doctor or a local alcohol support service.

Do I need to track every day?

Notice your mornings rather than counting drinks or streaks. How you wake up is the result you are actually after.

What does a month off do to your body?

A small 2018 study measured lower blood pressure, insulin resistance and weight after one month without alcohol. The guide on what Dry January does to your body has the details and the limits.

What happens on February 1?

Nothing has to. Among 857 participants who answered all three surveys in a 2016 study, both those who completed January and those who did not reported fewer drinking days six months later.

How can Morning Mirror help in the evening?

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 built for exactly the hour this guide is about.