In this experiment I’m exploring a recent trend in managing one’s dopamine supply.

Our mobile devices, along with many other modern amenities, are designed to create dopamine responses from the brain. This is the neurotransmitter related to motivation, reward, and seeking. Some experts say some of our technology-enabled habits really mess up our dopamine system.

I have no detailed understanding of how the body’s many chemicals work, but some experts recommend practices to protect it from the dysregulation caused by many of our habits. Being someone with ADHD, my dopamine system is already compromised, so I may benefit from being cautious around activities that can lead to dopamine depletion.

My primary inspiration for this experiment is this video by Dr. Alok Kanojia, and since then I’ve been doing more research. I’m currently reading The Molecule of More by Daniel Lieberman and Michael Long.

The Terms

This experiment began on April 24, 2025, and will end on May 23, 2025.

Read the original post here.

Basically I’m going to do two things in order to keep dopamine reserves high.

1. Avoid using my phone, or engaging in any other highly dopaminergic activities, until I’ve done several hours of work, exercise, or other effortful activity. Afterward I’ll be careful not to overindulge in dopamine-bombs like entertainment or snacking.
2. Take regular cold showers and/or cold baths.

On Cold Exposure Practices

I didn’t really describe this in the post, but I’m going to follow a common protocol for cold exposure therapy. Cold exposure apparently helps to regulate dopamine and has a host of other benefits.

The recommendation is a total of 10-12 minutes of cold exposure per week — three or four exposures that take a few minutes each. These will take the form of cold showers or cold baths. I’ll try both but showers are probably more convenient.

I’ll ease into them. The first few sessions I’ll begin with a warm shower, then turn the water cold, then turn it warm again. They say the effect is compromised somewhat by ending with warm water — ideally you let yourself air-dry after getting out of the cold shower. I’m definitely going to start with something less awful than that.

I’ll be recording the temperature and duration of each session.

The Log

Day 1 – April 24, 2025

Early start strategy is off to a great start

This morning I got up, turned off my alarm, and did not look at my phone. I made coffee and breakfast, read a book for a half-hour, then was at my desk by 7:00am.

By now I’ve done enough work that it seems like it should be almost lunchtime, but it’s only 9:08. Even with no dopamine-related benefits, clearly I’m already using my time better.

Subjectively, I feel mostly the same, although I do feel calmer and less distracted, probably because I haven’t consumed any content today. I realize now that I don’t have any guidelines about how to proceed with my device from here, except “use it sparingly.” I may implement some kind of screen time limits, but we’ll see what happens today.

First cold shower will be tomorrow — you’re supposed to do it early in the day.

Day 2 – April 25, 2025

Cold water sure does something

Whoa! I just took a first cold shower.

I’m easing into this, so I did hot, then cold, then hot again. The cold water was only on for 30 seconds, and wow — it is really intense. It’s not just uncomfortable; the whole body goes into survival mode. At the suggestion of a reader, I turned my body a full revolution, so that the cold water gets all over and no part of the body gets used to it.

Almost immediately I felt invigorated, full of energy, clear minded. I wanted to go to the gym, so I did, and I had a great workout.

It’s too early to come to conclusions about what causes what, but so far I feel better overall. It’s hard to describe how exactly. I feel more able. More free to choose what I want to do.

Some resources for anyone interested in trying something similar

This is a whitepaper on the “Dopamine Detox” idea. It’s from a psychiatric office and is pretty non-sensational. [Link]

Here’s a guide to therapeutic cold exposure, from Huberman Lab [Link]

Dr Alok Kanojia, mentioned in the original post, has lots of videos on the subject. This one contains the lemon-squeezing analogy and offers a lot of good recommendations.

One of the prominent experts on the topic is Dr. Anna Lembke. There are a lot of interviews of her talking about dopamine and addiction, as well as practices you can do to manage dopamine. This one is a good summary of the whole topic. This one focuses on recommendations for people who want to adjust their behavior with a personal campaign or experiment.

Day 5 – April 28

Made my phone boring

My morning routine of getting to my desk at 7:00 and working till 9:00 before checking my phone is so great. I can’t believe how much I get done by such an early hour, and absolutely zero time wasted on the phone. It’s a much better way to start the day than I’ve been doing all these years.

The cold showers are invigorating. I feel great afterward, but man they are not comfortable. I can feel a bit of dread creeping in when it’s almost shower time. I’m experimenting with different ways of doing it. Yesterday I turned the heat down gradually instead of in one go. No sure what’s better.

The problem so far is that it isn’t clear what rules I should follow after 9am. I am generally trying to minimize phone use all day, but that’s a vague instruction. Yesterday I fell into a hole with it and spent several hours on it later in the day. I definitely don’t want to do that, like ever, so I’ll come up with a rule of thumb to prevent it.

Another good decision was installing an app called Minimalist Phone. Basically it changes the pages of colorful app icons into a black-and-while text list of apps. You select a few favorites for your home page, and then the only other page is a long list of everything else. This prevents browsing the “candy store” of app icons, so you don’t end up opening an app just because it caught your eye. You have to type in the app you want to use, or scroll through a long list, in order to open it, forcing you to consciously identify what it is you are actually trying to do with this thing in your hands.

That has cut down on lots and lots of incidental phone-fiddling, but I still find myself picking it up with no intention whatsoever, and realizing I had no reason except to delay carrying on with the next real-life task. Highly recommend this app.

Day 7 – April 30

Change in how I feel and act

The structure of my day is much improved just from starting early and not using my phone for a few hours. But I’m also noticing a change in how I feel subjectively throughout the day, and my behavior is changing as a result.

I feel calmer, and more in control. Some or all of that may be just be the result of using my time better, but I think part of it is a cognitive change. I am less needy, and more mindful. I think those two things are basically opposites, so it seems like.

Focus has many layers

The Minimalist Phone app has helped to drastically cut down on reflexive phone behaviors. There are still times I find my phone in my hand, not sure what I was trying to do. But now I become aware that I’m doing that before any apps get opened, because there are no candy-like icons to browse, just text. This is what it looks like:

To open an app aside from the basic texting/camera/phone functions, I have to think of it first, and begin typing it in. This filters out almost all inadvertent app use, because you’re forced through this step of consciously identifying your intention.

Obviously this filtering mechanism saves a lot of time, but it also means much less content passes through my brain each day, and I think that is having a major effect on me. My mind is being asked far less often to react to an image, opinion, joke, or hot take. I didn’t realize how much the content I consume affects my thoughts and emotions throughout the day. I feel much more focused, because my mind mostly only has in it the concerns I choose consciously. I’m focused on work and the people in my life, rather than the political or cultural discourse of the day. I’m concerned with life as it appears around me, not life as represented by content.

This is a major change from how I’ve been living for years now. Even during my political content fast, I still consumed a lot of random content through my mobile phone, which, I now realize, splits my limited capacity for genuine concern in too many ways. It’s been so long since my mind wasn’t largely occupied by what’s out there on the internet.

Tellingly, most of the content I consume now is in written or audio form — I run into far fewer images and videos when I’m not absorbing content unintentionally. I didn’t realize how much stuff I consume by happenstance, and how that content tends to be flashier, more vivid, more jarring and attention-grabbing. In hindsight, this should have been obvious — when you want to get people to consume content inadvertently, rather the the content they would consciously choose, you need it to aggressively hook the attention like that.

Day 12 – May 5

I still feel better and I don’t think I’m imagining it

Everything is still going pretty great. I’m keeping a very strict morning regimen, with definite wakeup and at-my-desk times, which makes it easy to avoid disrupting my experiment commitments.

It’s hard to describe the difference in how I feel. I imagine some of it is psychological. Starting work at 7 with no phone to get in the way has made my days more productive. This would have been the case even if there were no brain-chemical changes, however, simply because I get a lot done by early in the day, which is a massive confidence booster. My attitude is certainly different, which could explain a lot — I expect to get things done, so I do get things done, and that feels great.

I feel generally calmer and freer, and more like my destiny is actually in my hands. Again, this could be a result of the psychological benefits of more productive mornings, but it really is creating a subjectively-felt difference one way or another. I feel stronger, more reliable, more independent.

There’s also a noticeable difference in the strength of cravings in general. I feel much less of a draw towards junk food and passive entertainment. I don’t have to fight with myself to say no. I was always kind of amazed how people would turn down birthday cake or other cheap thrills, like they just didn’t want it. Now this is how I behave most of the time. That kind of stuff just doesn’t tempt me as much and it’s way easier to decline.

More resilience to cold

Now I haven’t mean measuring water temperature when I do my cold showers, but I think the same levels of cold are easier to tolerate. I am still doing hot-cold-warm, and this seems to be working for me. The one time I ended on cold water I felt kind of shivery afterward, even when I was working. It’s supposed to give you a more pronounced effect, but the prospect sure is a lot less attractive. I’ll try it again a few more times, but I’m liking what’s happening just from the cold 30-60 seconds in the middle of my shower.

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Day 18 – May 11

Relapse

Last week I had two fruitless morning writing sessions in a row, which is always demoralizing. Then I had a personal dilemma that really threw me for a loop — a phobia got triggered badly and put me in survival mode. I quickly found myself falling into a certain familiar kind of avoidant behavior where I’m not moving anything forward, not able to focus on work or anything else. I began to use my phone a lot more later in the day. This seemingly led to a cascade of dopamine-grasping behaviors — even more phone use, eating, quitting early. I quickly lost the groove and then lost the morning regimen too. I was limping into work like I used to, getting little done. It felt like all bets were off.

The subjective feeling of this state is very familiar, because I used to feel like that all the time. It really feels like that having one’s motivation completely drained. There’s a very strong craving for diversion and stimulation. I really do feel like a squeezed-out lemon rind. Then there’s the feelings of regret and shame and fear of the future that go along with a lack of productivity.

My dilemma should be resolved by the end of the day today. Tomorrow I’m going to be sure to nail down the beginning of the day with the usual start. As long as I have a good morning, and uninstall Instagram again, everything should be fine.

This episode has also revealed a problem with the experiment. I don’t really have any rules about what to do after my no-phone morning regimen. The momentum supplied by the good start alone tends to make for a good day, and so I think it makes sense to focus on nailing that part done about all else. If I have another lapse then I’ll look at cautiously adding in some other guardrails — too many rules prevents an experiment from ever feeling natural or taking on any lasting momentum.

Cold showers for life

Cold showers continue to shine as a helpful personal practice. I will probably always take them.

I’m much more acclimated to cold now. I can stay in medium-cold water basically indefinitely, without reactivity. I’m going to turn down the temperature this week, and get all the way to full cold for an indefinite amount of time.

Day 26 – May 19

Return to reading daily

I’ve gone back to “don’t even look at the phone until 9am” which is three hours after I wake up, and this is a great rule. It sits in my holder, and I must do something else, which is either working or reading a book.

One interesting development that is at least partly related to this experiment is that I’ve begun reading fiction daily again. I’m back on my Stephen King kick, and I spend at least 2 or 3 hours most days reading a plain old paper book. My ability to focus is undeniably better, which might be both a cause and an effect of this reading kick. I’m also much less caught up mentally in my own drama throughout the day, which I think is an underrated effect of absorbing yourself in fiction.

Cold showers continue to improve my life. I’m about to push them another level further to see if I can get right down to full tap-cold with no shuddering, which is about 50 degrees. Some showers I just turn the water cool for a bit, others I have it quite cold.

Overall I’m at a place where it’s clear that something is being managed here better than it was before. Maybe it’s dopamine, maybe it’s thinking, maybe I’m steering away from bad eating habits, which accounts for most of the effect — there are too many variables to know, but the way I’m living now is clearly and significantly better than a month ago.

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