This weekend concluded my 4th and likely last weekend of my sober experiment. I decided to take a break from drinking after coming back from Houston on the 9th of January and I haven’t had a drink since. I wanted to run an experiment and see how I would feel after a month of taking a break from any sort of alcohol.

Well, in short, I feel great. The benefits from not drinking are clear as day.

The major improvement in my life has to do around sleep. I am sleeping just significantly better than I have, perhaps since I was a teen. First, I have a much more consistent sleep schedule. I am in bed around 10:30/11 and am up at 6:30/7 every morning. On the weekends, the schedule shifts back an hour. Despite not getting a full 9 hours that I hope for, I wake up feeling more rested.

Similar to the above, I just feel much more motivated and energized to attack the day. I was really struggling with Mondays over the last couple of years as I felt I was slow out of the gates to start the week often. But my Mondays are completely different nowadays after getting good rest over the weekend.

In regards to overall health, obviously more energy is a net positive for my fitness and I’ve had great workouts the last few weeks. My gut health is one area that is definitely improved as well and I feel just overall much healthier.

In terms of my social life, I’m definitely staying in a lot more. This past weekend, I stayed home on Friday and Saturday night to play video games and watch TV. My friends who are also not drinking right now are more or less doing the same. This is admittedly a lot easier when there’s no major sports events right now.

All that said, my social life hasn’t taken that big of an impact by not drinking. I still go out to dinner with my friends and have fun. I went to a bar to watch the 49ers game last weekend and had a great time. I find myself more present when I’m not drinking and actually trying to get to know the people around me.

However, I’m definitely purposely not being as social as I used to be. I am doing more activities during the day. But overall I’d would probably say the effects of removing alcohol on my social life has been neutral.

Perhaps most important on this experiment the last month is that I’m hoping to have a healthier relationship with alcohol going forward. The break has confirmed that my life does not revolve around social events that involve drinking. I am no longer 23 and drinking consistently every weekend is just not worth it.

I will have my first drink again sometime this week. When I start drinking again next week, I will do so in a much more controlled manner. Perhaps I don’t need to drink at every social occasion I go out or maybe I should just get a Diet Coke when on a company work trip. My body will thank me later.