Three Reflections from a 24 Hour Dopamine Fast

The perfect reset for the new year.

A few days into 2022, everything just felt kind of the same.

I didn’t have any kind of sudden boost in energy or motivation, I had to really drive to go forth and accomplish any of my goals. None of the positive feelings many associate with a new year were coming to me.

I just felt tired. I needed some kind of push. Something to propel me into the new year. A real reset.

I remembered hearing about the idea of a dopamine fast somewhere on the interweb. So I thought it could be a great way to really get myself going.

For those who don’t know, a dopamine fast completely restricts any activities that release dopamine in the brain. This includes, well, pretty much everything I was doing all day every day.

During a dopamine fast, you can’t eat, or consume calories of any kind, or have anything with any real taste, like coffee. You can’t watch TV, play video games, have sex. Even reading is forbidden.

Now, I already had a bit of an advantage coming into this, as I often practice water fasting for the health benefits. However, during my fasts I usually just spend the day binging TV or scrolling Instagram, to compensate for not having the dopamine rush from…