My dopamine detox experience

First let's look at my Saturday which was a busy day. Me and my dad went to my aunt's for lunch and it was about an hour drive there and back. That took most of my day and it was already starting to get dark when we came home. I had 2-3 hours before catching a bus and going to a party. Probably not the best idea considering the fact I was doing this challenge the next day but I wanted to see my friends and have some good time in case we get another quarantine or something like that. It was around 2am when I got home and probably 2:30am when I went to bed.

I woke up around 7 and it was somewhere between 7:20 and 7:30 when I turned off my phone so I counted 7:30 as the official start of dopamine detox. I stayed in bed since there was nothing I could/wanted to day and yes, I thought about coffee - you know that first sip of coffee after a night out, but one of my 'rules' for this challenge was not having coffee so those thoughts went away fast which was surprising to me. Eventually, I fell asleep again and got up around 11 something, made my bed, put away a few things from the day before and had a glass of water. I also made a cup of plain chamomile tea (no sweetener for less dopamine boost) and since it has been a while since I had food, I was really hungry and had a salty pastry stick. Since my family was inside at that moment and it was a really nice and sunny day, I took my journal and went outside so I can write in silence. I enjoyed it a lot but soon I went back to my room to finish my tea before it got too cold and I continued writing inside.

Soon after that, I had a plate of homemade soup and decided to lay down a bit but I ended up falling asleep and I think I slept for 3 hours or so (I woke up just before 5pm). Then I made myself a super delicious chicken salad and another cup of tea, this time it was plain mint tea. I went outside again, to check on the chickens and watch the sunset. I thought I would spend a lot more time outside during my dopamine detox day but I slept through most of the daylight, lol. When I got inside, I made my November bullet journal spreads and that's probably the time I missed music the most. There was few other times of the day when I really missed playing music and in combination with coffee, I think it was the hardest thing to give up, even just for a day.

A week ago, I got back to practicing/learning languages on Duolingo - Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and I'll add a little bit of German, so I finally got a couple more notebook so every language can have its own notebook. I was writing down everything on papers and it was just too messy and hard to navigate. I took some time to copy words and phrases from paper to notebook which is something I have been procrastinating so it was nice to start this task. Around that time I was still craving something sweet (it started after that chicken salad) and luckily we had some fruit options in the house so I went for a pear - it was really, really sweet and it definitely satisfied my sweet tooth.

Since I slept for a decent amount of time during the day, I thought my evening would be a lot more productive. Evenings are also a little bit more silent in my house, especially when kids go to sleep. But I started to get a headache so guess what I did? Went to bed again! It was probably around 7:30pm and I fell asleep again (?!), woke up around 9:30pm, spent about hour - hour and a half awake, had a pain killer and went back to bed. Needless to say I was completely confused with all this sleeping and waking up multiple times a day. It just felt so weird! I think I woke up just before 4am and I was just laying in my bed until I fell asleep again and finally got up at 9 something today. It was 10am (Monday) when I turned on my phone and laptop and had a cup of coffee.

I think that going out the night before was definitely a bad idea. However, Sunday still seems like a good choice and I would probably do it again on Sunday. I also think that doing this once a month (with a few changes maybe) is a good reset/cleanse. When you think about it, it's just one day compared to the rest of the month we spend overly exposed to dopamine boosts. I noticed that I appreciated my coffee a lot more this morning and I was so happy to play my favorite songs at the moment. Limiting these things (on daily basis) I gave up during this challenge would probably be a good idea as it could keep my dopamine at a decent level. I'll definitely experiment with that and see how it goes.

There's a few things I was aware of before starting this dopamine detox considering my lifestyle. First, I live with my family and from the research I did, it is suggested to bring the communication with other people to the minimum or even to zero. I knew that was not possible in my case, but I did try to spend most of the time alone, in my room. Second thing is that we have a TV in our living room that is on most of the day as there's always someone watching something. So when I go to prepare food or something like that, I would be 'exposed' to TV even though I'm not really the one watching it. Also, some people do a full on fast which is also something I wasn't planning to do. Maybe I'll do better next time with my food choices but I'll still have food during dopamine detox. Next time, I'll skip going out the night before as I think it was one of the reasons I had a terrible headache (together with weather changes and not having my daily dose of coffee).