Who else went a little too hard at New Year’s Eve? Or Christmas for that matter. Or really just the whole of the festive period that saw you drink consistently too much across the month or more that we call yuletide.

January for many of us not only represents the beginning of a new year, but a chance to repay our debts when it comes to the excessive drinking of the year past. For many of us, it signals the start of a dry month — a period of abstinence from alcohol that is proving to have a myriad of health benefits and has already been confirmed as a top trend for 2019.

Giving up booze for the month (or more) not only helps with weight loss, improved skin condition, and a boost in energy, but a new study says that it will change drinking habits long term. Or so says a team of scientists from the University of Sussex, who recently published a report on going teetotal short-term and its influence over long-term health.

The 800 participants involved went booze-free for the month of January in 2018, and all who attempted the challenge (not just completed it) reported that they were drinking significantly less amounts of alcohol just eight months later in August of the same year. By the end of the research stint, participants were indulging in one less drink per week, recording an average 4.3 drinking days at the beginning of the study, which dropped to 3.3 days by the time research ended.

“The simple act of taking a month off alcohol helps people drink less in the long term; by August people are reporting one extra dry day per week. There are also considerable immediate benefits: 9 in 10 people save money, 7 in 10 sleep better and 3 in 5 lose weight,” explained Dr Richard de Visser of the University of Sussex to Harper’s Bazaar UK.

“Interestingly, these changes in alcohol consumption have also been seen in the participants who didn’t manage to stay alcohol-free for the whole month – although they are a bit smaller. This shows that there are real benefits to just trying to complete Dry January.”

If the health benefits don’t tempt you to go dry this month perhaps the financial ones will; 88 per cent of participants confirmed that they had saved money throughout the study.

Perhaps its time to put down that beer and reach for the water.