If Dry January Feels Impossible, Try a ‘Damp’ January

Sarah Klein, CPT
·7 min read

This article is part of Dry January, Straight Up, your no-BS guide to cutting out alcohol for 31 days—or longer. SELF will be publishing new articles for this series throughout January. Read more here.

Curious about drinking a little less alcohol but don’t feel ready to ditch it entirely for Dry January? There’s a less restrictive, possibly more mindful option you could try: Damp January, also sometimes called Dryish January. By cutting back on booze rather than cutting it out completely you don’t have to miss Winedown Wednesdays but you can still take stock of your drinking habits (and bar spending)—and ideally set yourself up for a healthier long-term relationship with alcohol.

Choosing to have a Dry January has gotten increasingly popular as more and more drinkers began to grasp the fact that alcohol really isn’t good for us (sorry to be a buzzkill!). After a December full of holiday party cocktails and champagne toasts to the new year, lots of people are ready to “step back from what might be some unhealthier habits that they have adopted over the holidays and give their bodies that break to return to a healthier lifestyle,” says Danielle Dick, PhD, director of the Rutgers Addiction Research Center and a science advisor at Seek, an at-home testing company that helps women determine the effects of their alcohol use. For many, consuming less alcohol is at the top of that list.

Still, plenty of people want to keep drinking socially to an extent. “Like all things in life, we decide how much risk we’re willing to take versus the enjoyment we get out of things like alcohol as part of our lifestyle,” Dr. Dick tells SELF. The attractive thing about Damp January is that it isn’t all-or-nothing. Instead, it meets people where they are, she says. “Reducing any amount of alcohol is healthy for our bodies and healthy for our psychology.”

And that’s simply more approachable and realistic for some drinkers. “Some people are inspired by an all-or-nothing approach like Dry January to reduce their alcohol consumption,” Emma Laing, PhD, RDN, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, tells SELF. “However, for those who need a little more flexibility and built-in permission to ‘fail,’ participating in Damp January can accomplish the same goal of scaling back.”

As George F. Koob, PhD, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, puts it: “Some people aren’t ready to commit to a month of total abstinence. This is the idea behind participating in Damp rather than Dry January. Instead of stopping completely, people commit to cutting back on their drinking for the month and using the opportunity to take a closer look at why, when, and how they drink.” Here, experts explain the pros of reducing your intake and how you can make a low-liquor month work for you.

Cutting back on booze even just a little may still be worth it.

There’s a laundry list of reasons alcohol’s not great for your health: It can upset your stomach, hurt your heart, mess with your memory, disrupt your sleep, and increase your risk of high blood pressure, stroke, liver disease, depression, and some cancers, Dr. Laing tells SELF.

In fact, every year, about 178,000 Americans die from complications of excessive alcohol use, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s more than four times the number of deaths due to breast cancer.

But, for people who drink quite often, “research has shown that even a modest reduction in alcohol consumption can benefit health,” Dr. Laing says. For example, a March 2024 study published in JAMA Network Open found that heavy drinkers who cut back to more moderate levels of alcohol use had a 23% lower risk of heart problems than if they’d stuck to their previous levels of drinking. Similarly, in an August 2022 JAMA Network Open study, heavy drinkers had a lower risk of cancer when they scaled back to mild or moderate levels of alcohol use.

One important caveat here: If you’ve been drinking heavily for years, talk to your doctor before making any drastic changes to your alcohol use. “Stopping abruptly can lead to life-threatening withdrawal,” Dr. Koob says. Cutting back can be a safer approach, but the safest route is to develop a strategy with the help of a professional.

It can also make you a more mindful drinker.

“Anyone can benefit from examining their relationship with alcohol, whether that means stopping completely or just cutting back,” Dr. Koob says. “Reducing alcohol consumption without quitting entirely still provides opportunities to reflect on one’s alcohol use and make informed choices about whether to cut back further, quit, or return to previous drinking patterns at the end of the month.”

Changing up your drinking habits can also help you reassess why you drink in the first place and find some alternatives if that seems necessary, Dr. Koob adds. During a Damp January, you might need to rethink how you relax, have fun, cope with emotions, or even fall asleep, depending on how you’ve been using booze, he says. For example, if you’ve been using alcohol to self-medicate for anxiety in social situations, maybe Damp January will inspire you to seek out healthier coping mechanisms, like visiting with a therapist or starting a regular exercise routine, Dr. Dick says.

Ultimately, if you go dryish instead of fully dry, you’ll end up “paying closer attention to things like where, when, and why [you] drink,” Koob says, which can help you figure out what your approach will be in February and beyond.

How to do a Damp January

In keeping with the individualized approach, there are no hard-and-fast rules for a Damp January, Dick says. Instead, it’s all about figuring out what level of alcohol reduction feels appropriate and helpful for you. For some people, that might involve establishing a guideline like “I’m only going to have three drinks a week,” Dick says, or “I’m only going to drink three nights a week instead of six.” You could also try cutting back by one drink a week or one drinking night a week, seeing how that feels, and continuing to scale back from there.

You can also experiment with different types of beverages in the social situations where you’d usually sip your go-to Aperol spritz or dirty martini. “Try light-alcohol, non-alcoholic, or alcohol-free beverages,” Dr. Laing says. Many stores now sell a variety of low- or no-alcohol beers, wines, and mixed drinks. You can also lower the alcohol content of your wine at home by splashing in some sparkling water or kick back with kombucha, which only has tiny amounts of alcohol. You’ll likely even find NA options proudly displayed on bar and restaurant menus, and if not, “bartenders will often offer to make fancy mocktails upon request,” she says.

Need more Damp January inspo? Give one of these strategies a try:

  • Commit to only drinking on certain days of the week (or the weekends).

  • Cut out all hard liquor and stick to beer and wine only.

  • Decide to only drink in certain social situations, like at book club or a work happy hour.

  • Drink only beverages with lower percentages of alcohol.

  • Enlist an accountability buddy to help keep you on track and check in with them whenever you drink.

  • Stop drinking at least 3 hours before bedtime whenever you drink.

  • Sip something NA in between each alcoholic drink.

  • Pour yourself drinks at home in smaller glasses.

During your dryish month, try to notice how you feel when you do decide to drink—and the mornings after, Dr. Dick says. “Do you have more energy? Are you having healthier habits? Do your eyes look less puffy in the morning?” When you start paying closer attention, you might find motivating reasons to stick to your lower levels of alcohol use (or give it up entirely) in January and beyond.

“If you feel better when you cut back, then your body is trying to tell you something,” Dr. Koob says, and it might just be time to listen.

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Originally Appeared on Self

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