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You’ve probably seen the term “dopamine detox” all over social media. Beauty influencers and wellness gurus alike have been touting the practice across TikTok and Instagram, with promises that it can restore your brain to a more balanced state. Which is a bit ironic—after all, most dopamine detoxes are inspired by the realization that we’ve been endlessly scrolling at an alarming, soul-crushing rate.
Irony aside, there’s merit to the recommendations. The average American spends over 4.5 hours on their phone per day, and those phones are a constant source of stimuli. Most of us are addicted to the dopamine rush that comes with the endless barrage of notifications, DMs, and alerts—and we probably don’t even realize the impact it has on our wellbeing, time, and energy. Taking a break from this toxic relationship could very well be the solution to achieving a happier, healthier state.
What is a dopamine detox?
The practice of taking a dopamine detox recently gained traction when YouTuber Emma Chamberlain mentioned it on her podcast, but the practice has been recommended by psychologists and therapists for several years now—especially after Tristan Harris, ex-web designer at Google, revealed the mechanisms deployed by Silicon Valley to monopolize our attention in a 2016 article titled “How Technology Is Hijacking Your Mind.” Case in point: the infinite scroll function on Instagram and TikTok, which was created in order to make users lose track of time down an inexhaustible rabbit hole of content.
Thanks to these kinds of brain-stimulating tricks, it’s all too easy to find ourselves stuck in a vicious circle of continual stimuli which produces spikes of dopamine that keep us hooked. And dopamine can be tricky—known as the “feel-good” hormone, it’s part of the body’s reward system and a reason some substances, activities, and experiences can become addictive: “As humans, our brains are hard-wired to seek out behaviors that release dopamine in our reward system,” the Cleveland Clinic explains. “When you’re doing something pleasurable, your brain releases a large amount of dopamine. You feel good and seek more of that feeling.”
A dopamine detox aims to cut off the source. How? By eliminating access to any activity that drives instant gratification or impulsive behavior. That could be digital stimuli like apps, notifications, screen services, social media, and online porn—but it could also be things like shopping, gambling, and sugar.
“To be clear, we are not fasting from dopamine itself, but from impulsive behaviors reinforced by it,” explains psychiatrist Dr. Cameron Sepah, who is largely credited with coining the concept of “dopamine fasting” in 2019. To that end, the goal is really to avoid any potential source of stimuli that is problematic for you; anything you’re doing mindlessly that’s sucking up your time, attention, and life force. By eliminating problematic stimuli, your brain has a chance to calm down and naturally re-regulate its reward system.
What are the benefits of a dopamine detox?
The benefits of a dopamine detox are numerous—though it is important to remember that dopamine is a natural and important part of our biological system, so it’s not really possible to completely eliminate dopamine. (Nor should you want to: Healthy pleasure is good!) The point is to become more aware of our addictive, dopamine-driven, impulsive behaviors, and to ultimately become more present, more connected, and more focused on what truly matters to us.
After all, being more present means you’ll be calmer, less reactive, and better able to deal with fluctuating emotions. The time freed from endless scrolling (or whatever your impulsive behavior may be) allows you to prioritize yourself, your mental and physical health, your goals, and your relationships.
How to do a dopamine detox
On average, it can take up to 66 days to change a habit. This means you need a minimum of two months to fully re-habituate your body to a different lifestyle or a new routine. A dopamine detox is no exception; the mind must have time to get out of the cycle of instant gratification and restore its natural reward system without external triggers.
But if two months sounds impossible, don’t stress—there are less extreme ways to do a dopamine detox; anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days can be helpful when it comes to resetting your routines. Here are four simple ways to apply a dopamine detox to your everyday:
To avoid digital overstimulation, reduce your time spent on screens—and especially social media, video games, and streaming platforms. Set a maximum time allotted and aim to decrease the duration over time. Use the built-in settings on your phone or an app like Freedom or Forest to help monitor your time.
Replacing mindless activities with physical exercise—jogging, weight training, pilates, yoga, walking—and real-life connection stimulates the production of endorphins, a healthy alternative to the dopamine spikes that impulsive behavior like scrolling can bring.
Meditation pauses interaction with the outside world and offers the brain a chance to really rest and check-in. The result? A calm, refocused, de-stressed mind and body in just 10 to 15 minutes a day.
This seems obvious, but reducing your consumption of sugar and junk-food is another crucial way to stop the spiral of mental overstimulation, as these foods can contribute to an excessive release of dopamine. In addition to rebalancing your nutritional intake, eating healthier meals based on vegetables, proteins, and good carbohydrates helps stabilize mood—an ideal way to overcome dopamine driven spans of attention.
