The Dry January® challenge: Frequently Asked Questions

Have a question about the Dry January® challenge? Check out the Frequently Asked Questions below for answers to some of the most common ones.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Dry January® challenge has been designed to support people looking to reset their drinking habits by taking a 31 day break from alcohol. It is not suitable for people who are clinically alcohol dependent and is not designed as a replacement for specialist treatment. If you think you may be drinking too much or are unsure if you are dependent, we’d recommend talking to your GP to get advice around your drinking and best support options. If you’d like check your drinking levels, why not take our Check you drinking quiz? If you’re concerned about your drinking, take a look at our resources page to see what support is out there.

The Dry January® challenge daily motivational emails begin from 1 January 2026.

If you haven't received your email at the start of the challenge, check your spam or junk folder in the first instance and be sure to save [email protected] to your safe sender list. If your emails still haven’t arrived, you may find that you’ve previously unsubscribed from our mailing list. If this is the case, you can resubscribe here.

Still having problems?

Get in touch with our team at [email protected] and we will sort it for you.

If you celebrated New Year's Eve and drank after midnight as part of that celebration, you can record your drinking under 31 December 2025. You can mark 1 January 2026 as a dry day in this instance. If you woke up on New Year's Day and started drinking again then this would be recorded as a drinking day on 1 January 2026. Both of these can be recorded in the Try Dry® app.

If you signed up on or before 1 January, we will send you one motivational email per day for the next 33 days and at the end of the challenge you will be invited to join our monthly mailing list.

Our Dry January® emails are best suited to people starting the challenge on 1 January 2026. If you started after the first or intend to start later, you may find our Try Dry® Anytime 31 Days email journey a better fit. This journey allows you to receive emails that correspond to your specific start date.

We're only asking for your postcode to be sure that our work reaches all parts of the UK. We’ll never use it to contact you personally or share your personal data with anyone. Read our privacy notice to find out more.

The Dry January® challenge and all the associated tools like the Try Dry® app, daily motivational emails, and online community are free and brought to you by Alcohol Change UK, the charity behind the Dry January® challenge.

Although the challenge is about trying for 31 dry days in January, if you have a slip up there is no need to reset or drop out. Keep recording your progress in Try Dry® during January and if you want to extend into February you can carry on building your streak.

You can use the Try Dry® app to support your goals this month, and you may find our 4 week Anytime Cut Back challenge more suitable. The emails will be focused on tips to help you drink less. The Dry January® challenge motivational emails will be aimed at people trying to go dry in the month of January.

Although you can sign up to both challenges, you will only ever receive one set of emails from Alcohol Change UK at once. If you’ve signed up to the Dry January® challenge after 1 January, you will receive your daily motivational emails from the day after you joined, so you will have missed those shared in the earlier days. If you’d prefer to receive the full 31-day experience, you can join our Try Dry® Anytime 31-day challenge which allows you to start your 31-day journey from day one, whenever you begin.

Get in touch with our team at [email protected] and we'll be happy to help.

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