Drink-free days: how many a week, and how to make them stick

What the guidelines say about days off

The NHS advice for keeping health risks low includes three parts: no more than 14 units a week on a regular basis, spreading drinking over 3 or more days if you regularly drink as much as 14 units, and trying to have several drink-free days each week. "Take a break" is also one of its tips for cutting down.

Ireland's HSE is more specific. It advises spreading your drinks out across the week and having at least 2 to 3 alcohol-free days per week, alongside its weekly limits. NIAAA's Rethinking Drinking suggests deciding how many days a week you want to drink and says it is a good idea to have some days when you do not drink at all.

Days off are not for saving drinks up

Drink-free days only help if the other days do not make up for them. The HSE says it is not safe to drink your weekly limit in one session or over a couple of nights, which it calls binge drinking and says causes the most harm to your health. The NHS defines binge drinking as more than 8 units in a single session for men or more than 6 units for women.

Here is what a 14-unit week looks like spread over different numbers of days, by our arithmetic:

How to choose your drink-free days

Pick them before the week starts rather than deciding each evening. You might start with the days that already feel easiest, such as work nights, and keep the occasions you most enjoy a drink for the drinking days. Our guide on how to stop drinking every night goes through planning around the evening routine, and the standard drink calculator shows how many units your usual drinks are.

Tracking helps you see whether the plan is working. The NHS suggests keeping a daily diary of how much you drink or using a drink tracking app, and offers its own Drink Free Days app. Our free tracker works for any month: tick each alcohol-free day and watch the total grow, with nothing sent off your device.

When drink-free days are hard to manage

If even one day without a drink feels out of reach, or you get shaky, sweaty or anxious when you go without, that is worth taking seriously. The NHS lists these as possible withdrawal symptoms and says it can be very dangerous to stop drinking suddenly if you are dependent on alcohol, so get medical help before you try to stop.

NIAAA also suggests that if you have not made progress cutting down after two to three months, you consider quitting, getting professional help, or both. The AUDIT-C check is a quick, private way to take stock.

Common questions

When to get help

This site offers self-help tools and information, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor, or call one of the lines below, if:

• you feel shaky, sweaty, sick or anxious when you haven't had a drink;
• you find it hard to stop once you start, or you want to cut down and can't;
• drinking is causing problems with your health, work or the people close to you.

Before you stop: It can be very dangerous to stop drinking suddenly if you are dependent on alcohol. If you get withdrawal symptoms, get medical help before you try to stop drinking.

Sources

1. Alcohol units. NHS. nhs.uk
2. The risks of drinking too much. NHS. nhs.uk
3. Tips on cutting down on alcohol. NHS. nhs.uk
4. Weekly low-risk alcohol guidelines. Health Service Executive (Ireland). hse.ie
5. Tips to Try (Rethinking Drinking). National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov
6. Alcohol-use disorder. NHS. nhs.uk