Deciding to quit drinking for 30 days can feel like a challenge, but many people are surprised by how quickly their body and mind begin to change. From better sleep and clearer thinking to reduced anxiety and weight loss, even a short break from alcohol can have significant benefits. Drinking negatively affects sleep, and naturally, this affects your mood and energy levels the following day.

Increases Libido

Alcoholic beverages are packed with loads and loads of calories, and they’re all empty ones that don’t fill you up. But it actually causes worsened sleep quality overall, preventing your body from 9 healthy things that happen to your body when you stop drinking for 30 days or more entering your deepest sleep phase for restorative rest. According to the person in question, a Reddit user with the funny username Ateepeemadeofpeepee, all he did was give up drinking. Alcohol can also impair your ability to get restorative rest because you’re less likely to enter REM sleep, which has been shown to increase your risk of dementia. By Buddy TBuddy T is a writer and founding member of the Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee with decades of experience writing about alcoholism.

What 30 Days Of No Alcohol Looks Like

This reduction can be especially helpful for those looking to shed a few pounds or maintain a healthy weight. Alcohol impairs cognitive function and decreases mental clarity by interfering with the balance of neurotransmitters in your brain. When you’re hungover, it’s common to feel foggy and have difficulty concentrating. Over time, regular alcohol consumption can even have long-term negative effects on your mental health like making anxiety and depression even worse. Some people choose to quit drinking for only a short period of time (like a few weeks to a few months) because they’re on a health kick.

Week Course – The Spiritual Intelligence Pathway to Alcohol Recovery:

This is where the central nervous system becomes so reliant on the depressive effects of alcohol that, when a patient stops drinking, their brain stays in a “hyperactive” state. This can lead to symptoms including anxiety, insomnia and irritability, and in more serious cases, hallucinations, seizures and potentially death. Cancer risk can be increased because of several factors, some entirely out of our control, like genetics. But among the factors that are within our control, like diet and lifestyle choices, drinking alcohol may have a profound impact on our chances of developing cancer. Relative to those who have less than one drink per week, men who have two or more drinks per day increase their lifetime risk of cancer by 3.1%, and that number goes up to 5.3% for women.

The First Day Without Drinking Alcohol

• Scientists recruited 94 volunteers who were on average 45 years old and asked them to stop drinking for a month.
• That’s because dehydration leads to a breakdown of collagen and elastin fibers, which accelerates the formation of fine lines.
• Quitting alcohol can lead to improvements in mood, reduced anxiety, and better overall mental well-being.
• Cutting out alcohol for 30 days can have benefits for those who drink more than the recommended limit of two drinks a day for males and one drink a day for females.
• For some, the challenge showed them how good life feels without alcohol, leading to a permanent change in their drinking behaviour.
• Cognitive, emotional, and sleep disturbances can occur at even moderate levels of drinking.

Have a frank conversation about how much you drink, and let them advise you on the need for a medically supervised detox. You would be surprised how many people fall into this category but risk it anyway and land themselves in the ER. Even with a healthy diet of whole grains, fresh fruits, and vegetables, you might still crave candy and other sugary treats. These cravings are temporary and should dissipate within a few weeks. Some people don’t experience any of that for the first week or two and jump straight to the pink cloud, before getting hit with cravings.

Your mental health will improve.

“It’s quite clear that alcohol has a physiological effect on the body, so I’d be surprised if all those effects just wore off,” he said. One way to represent the average drinker may be to focus on people who don’t have a history of alcohol dependence. This is exactly what one study, published in the British Medical Journal, did in 2018.

Withdrawal

The improvement in your immune function can contribute to overall better health and a reduced likelihood of catching common colds or other infections. According to the National Cancer Institute, alcohol use has been linked to an increased risk for cancers of the mouth, liver, colon, and rectum. Bumping up our vitamin C intake, washing our hands and getting quality sleep are all tried-and-true ways to help us stay cold and flu-free (although nothing is guaranteed). But less-known is that drinking too much alcohol isn’t doing our immune system any favors and can actually reduce how well it functions.

Finding a therapist can also be a great starting point if you’re uncomfortable opening up to your healthcare professional. At the end of the day, one of the most important tools you have at your disposal is self-compassion. Instead of criticizing yourself for having a hard time or slipping up and having a drink, remember that no one’s perfect. What matters most is your ability to maintain an open, curious outlook as you learn what does and doesn’t work for you. Satisfying hobbies can distract you from wanting to drink, but they also help you relax — something everyone needs to do.

Boost brain power

We’ve made a timeline – based on scientific research – that shows what you might feel in the first days, weeks, months and years after taking a break from alcohol. A standard drink roughly translates to 12 ounces (0.35 liters) of beer at 5% alcohol by volume (ABV), or 5 ounces (0.14 L) of wine at 12% ABV. By cutting out alcohol, you may experience improved digestion and gut health. As your stomach lining heals and inflammation subsides, you’ll likely notice a more comfortable and efficient digestive system. In turn, this can lead to better nutrient absorption and overall improved well-being. Men consume an additional 433 calories on those days they drink a “moderate” amount of alcohol, according to one study.

But anything more than a drink or so a day has the opposite effect, especially if you abuse or are addicted to alcohol. A glass of regular beer has about 150 calories, and a serving of wine has about 120. On top of those mostly empty calories, alcohol ramps up your appetite. It also makes you more impulsive, and less able to resist the fries and other temptations on the menu.

• However, for people who exceed recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, he said staying away from alcohol for a month can reap changes.
• It’s important to note that, because we are all biochemically different, not everyone has the same symptoms or withdrawal timelines.
• Excess alcohol consumption may cause weight gain, which means that cutting out alcohol could lead to weight loss for some people.
• Ditching drinks for 30 days could bring real improvements for emotional health.
• A person who suffers from mild withdrawal symptoms and escalates their drinking is likely to experience moderate withdrawal symptoms in the future.

If you want to reduce your alcohol use and stop drinking, there is help and support for you. Behavioral interventions, medications, and social support can all play a role in your alcohol recovery. When you stop drinking, it can also reverse the negative effects alcohol has had on your cognitive functions like problem-solving, memory, and attention. “Quitting drinking can improve a person’s sleep, but there may still be a significant number of people who continue to have sleep problems even with continuous abstinence,” Volpicelli says. People who drink heavily are about twice as likely to have a cardiovascular event within 24 hours than people who do not drink at all.

Ready to experience the life-changing benefits of quitting alcohol for 30 days and beyond? Contact Zinnia Health now to learn more about our supportive and compassionate approach to alcohol addiction treatment. Whatever the reason may be, going without alcohol for 30 days can have a significant impact on your physical and mental health. In this article, we’ll take a look at what happens to the body when you quit alcohol for 30 days.