Replace the evening drink: Aaron White's six o'clock swap

On NPR's Life Kit (January 2020), in an episode about taking a break from alcohol, Aaron White, a scientist at the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, told host Allison Aubrey that a plan to drink less is hard to keep if you haven't decided what replaces the habit. His example from that conversation was the glass of wine that arrives every night at six. At exactly six, he said, do some yoga, go for a walk or a run, or watch something funny.

"rather than just take away the behavior, replace the behavior with something that is healthier and more sustainable"

Aaron White, NPR Life Kit, 2020

Why the time matters

A drink at the same hour every evening runs on a cue: getting home, the kitchen, the end of work. Take the drink away and the cue still fires at six, with nothing to answer it. That empty slot is where good intentions usually give way.

White's swap keeps the slot and gives it a new answer. The new thing doesn't need to be virtuous. It needs to be ready at that exact time and to be something you'd actually like to do.

What the research adds

Habit can matter more than what you meant to do. In a survey of 414 Australians aged 35 to 60 who drank at home at least weekly, habit predicted how much they drank at home better than intention did (Aplin et al, 2021). It was one survey at one point in time, so it shows a link, not a cause.

The swap itself has some support. A review of 41 trials of digital programs to cut drinking found that programs using "behavior substitution", doing something else in place of drinking, were linked with about 12 fewer UK units a week. Only four trials used it, three from one research group, so the authors call the finding preliminary (Garnett et al, 2018).

New routines take time. In a study of people building healthy daily habits, the routine took about two months to settle for those whose progress was clear enough to measure, and missing one day didn't undo it (Lally et al, 2010). That study wasn't about alcohol.

White was talking about a break. If your body may have got used to alcohol, stopping or cutting down quickly can make you unwell, sometimes seriously. Don't stop suddenly: talk to a doctor or a local alcohol service first.

How this fits the Reduce your drinking program

In the 1h Protocol to Reduce Your Drinking, this is the Evening Reset: a routine starts the drink, so you start by changing your first move. The free part gives you that first move as your next step, and chapter 2 sets a new first move at home at your own time, with White's advice in an expert note beside it. The first chapter is free.

Source: NPR Life Kit, 6 strategies to help you take a break from drinking alcohol, 2 Jan 2020 Research: Aplin et al, 2021 · Garnett et al, 2018 · Lally et al, 2010