About 35% of legal aged adults in the U.S. participated in Dry January in 2022, an uptick from the 21% in 2019, according to CGA, which provides data on the food and drink industries. 

What was once a simple New Years resolution has become trendy and even glorified on social media as something to try, whether for health-related reasons or pure curiosity. The world has caught on too, as many restaurants and bars increasingly offer more mocktail options for those who want to join in on the after-work spritz without feeling out of the loop. 

But as overly ambitious New Years resolutions too often get broken, some have opted for Dry Januarys more lenient cousin: Damp January. 

Damp vs. Dry January 

Similar to Dry January, Damp January offers participants the chance to reflect on their relationship with alcohol.

It can become a very reflective moment, Dr. Akhil Anand, a psychiatrist with Cleveland Clinics Drug and Recovery Center, tells Fortune. Any reduction of alcohol is really important, adding that many people who make an effort to limit or forgo alcohol tend to find they dont need it to enjoy life like they once thought. 

As its name implies, the damp option doesnt require you to stop drinking altogether. You decide what boundaries to set. With Damp January, people make rules around alcohol consumption, ultimately limiting their intake over 31 days.

For example, if you typically have 15 drinks a week, you may aim to cut out a handful of those each week during the month and slowly curb your alcohol consumption. Alternatively, you may choose drinks with lower alcohol content. Someone may keep their glass of wine with dinner but forgo alcohol in work or social settings. Others may drink on certain days or times of the week. Its a personal decision, Vedant Pradeep, the CEO and co-founder of Reframe, an alcohol reduction app, tells Fortune, which can be empowering. 

Youre making a choice to cut back and to kind of prioritize your health, he says. That is a really good step in the right direction. 

Does Dry or Damp January improve health? 

Excessive drinking like binge drinking, which has increased during the pandemic, has long-term health consequences including developing an alcohol-use disorder, alcohol dependence, heart problems, a development of certain cancers, memory problems, depression and anxiety, and social problems, like family and job-related issues, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Drinking in moderation for those of legal age, defined as two or fewer drinks in a day for men and one or fewer drinks in a day for women, can help curb these longer-term health problems. 

Its no surprise that forgoing alcohol altogether also has its benefits. One study found that for moderate to heavy drinkers who abstained from alcohol for a month, longer-term health benefits followed, like improved insulin resistance, weight, blood pressure and a decrease in circulating concentrations of cancer-related growth factors. People Anand works with have also reported better overall wellness, sleep, and mood. 

While some people may be able to form better habits around alcohol and feel more confident turning down a drink post-January after completing a month of sobriety, maintaining that habit isnt easy for everyone. One study in the UK found upon completion of Dry January, many experienced feeling at greater liberty to drink to excess at other times of the year, with binge drinking having a greater damaging effect. The study calls for more research into how to measure success with alcohol reduction and elimination campaigns. Still, Anand says that reflecting on the month you reduced alcohol can help people get back on track and that changing alcohol habits in the New Year has its benefits. 

Is a Damp January right for you? 

An intention and a why are important when assessing whether you should choose a Damp January. Start by observing when you tend to drink alcohol and how it makes you feelnot only in the moment but afterward. 

Some people struggle with anxiety, and find that alcohol exacerbates their symptoms, Anand says. Others may have trouble sleeping or want to improve productivity, which all serve as intentions to limit consumption, especially when overcome by a society that emphasizes alcohol in a myriad of contexts. 

We live in the culture were involved in, whether it be at work or socially with friends, [and] alcohol is everywhere, Anand says. Having an invention helps you find ways to substitute alcohol for other activities and even new hobbies. 

When Anne Mahlum, a fitness entrepreneur and founder of Solidcore, reflected on her consumption, she realized she had formed a bad habit with alcohol. She was drinking every day and regularly indulging alone.  

If youre starting to think about it, and even question if you have a healthy relationship with alcohol, its probably telling you something, she says. I felt a little guilt. I felt ashamed. I didnt like that I woke up with a little bit of a headache sometimes. I was like, this just isnt in line with who I want to be.

When identifying how alcohol fits in your life, consider finding places where drinking can be swapped for something else, like exercise, and monitor how you feel when creating new situations where alcohol doesnt need to be at the center of the table. This can all help determine your intention for choosing a Damp or Dry January. 

For Mahlum, Damp January wasnt the answer, given that the guidelines can be ambiguous. Abstaining was needed in her case to assess her consumption. Still, everyone is different, she says. 

Going cold turkey may not work for everyoneor be sustainable. Some people may experience uneasiness that makes it challenging to stay true to their abstinence goal all the way through to the 31-day mark. Damp January might be the alternative. 

You can slowly reduce [alcohol consumption] over time, Pradeep says. Your body can kind of adapt to it a lot better. 

But for others who feel withdrawal beyond an uneasy feeling, including tremors (the shakes), anxiety, upset stomach, or heart rate changes, a more serious relationship with alcohol is at play, Anand says. For someone with an alcohol dependency, both Damp or Dry January will likely not prove beneficial, he says. Instead, consider talking to a family doctor or someone in the sober community. 

Habits help us put desirable behaviors on auto-pilot so we dont have to deliberate about whether theyre worthwhile or plan exactly how well execute on our good intentions, says Katy Milkman, author of How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be and the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

To set yourself up for success this year, here are some tips for building better habits:

1. Try to find a fun way to pursue your goals.

We persist on new behaviors for far longer when we enjoy them, but we rarely think about how to pursue good habits in a fun way, says Milkman. To make habits more fun, she recommends temptation building, or letting yourself enjoy a temptation while completing a chore. For instance, only let yourself binge-watch your favorite tv show while working out at the gym. Or only let yourself listen to your favorite podcast while doing household chores. Or only pop your favorite bottle of wine while cooking a healthy meal.

2. Break your goal down into bite-sized parts and make specific plans.

Instead of saying Ill exercise more next year, make a plan to exercise four hours each week by going for a run at 7 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, suggests Milkman.  

3. Enlist the help of a friend, or accountability partner.

When we team up with others, we have more fun pursuing our goals and were accountable to someone, which increases the pressure on us to succeed, she suggests. By advising friends with similar goals when they run into road bumps, we also actually help ourselves build confidence and competence, according to research led by Lauren Eskreis-Winkler.

4. Set up a commitment contract.

As for getting rid of bad habits once and for all, Milkman recommends a commitment contract, such as putting money on the line that youll have to forfeit if you fail to achieve your goals. In a study by Dean Karlan, a professor of economics and finance at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and collaborators, they found that such contracts led to a 30% higher quit rate for people who wanted to give up smoking than only offering people standard smoking cessation tools.

Milkman recommends websites such as StickK or Beeminder, or simply making arrangements directly with a friend to owe them cash if you fail to reach a goal by a certain date. 

How long it takes to build a habit

Contrary to popular belief, there is no magic number of days for how long itll take your new habit to stick. 

Research led by Anastasia Buyalskaya and Colin Camerer at CalTech that I collaborated on used machine learning to estimate that it takes an average person a few months to build a gym habit, but just a few weeks for caregivers to build the habit of sanitizing their hands when entering and exiting patients hospital rooms, says Milkman. Theres reason to believe that the more frequently you can repeat the behavior and the less complex the activity, the faster you can form the habit.

But try not to get discouraged if everything doesnt fall into place right away. Building new habits and changing old ones requires patience, grace and determination.

Try not to let one miss ever grow to two, Milkman says. Research shows its particularly valuable to avoid two misses in a row, so remind yourself its OK to break your streak but just dont ever let the misstep grow to two. 

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