10‑Day “Dopamine Reset” to Tame Late‑Night Cravings

danielrivera427

Hey MFP crew,

Lately my will‑power’s been crashing after 9 p.m. scrolling, “just one more” cookie, random YouTube rabbit holes, or "gooning" as the youngers would say. Decided to run a quick dopamine reset and track how it affects my calories, sleep and workout consistency.

What I’m testing

1. Phone curfew – airplane mode at 20:30, left in another room.
2. Sugar window – fruit or dark‑choc only, before 15:00.
3. Cold‑finish showers – 60 sec to spike norepinephrine.
4. Physical friction for late‑night… "impulses" – grabbed a basic stainless cage; wearing evenings to stop mindless scrolling / edging.
5. Evening wind‑down – decaf tea + stretching playlist.
6. Daily log – using MFP notes to track macros, mood (😃/😐/😖) and sleep hours.

Day‑0 baseline• Calories: aiming 2,050 kcal (cut)• Avg steps: 8.1 k• Sleep: 6 h 15 m (Oura)• Cravings: 4/5 intensity after 21:00

I’ll drop a mini‑check‑in around Day 5 with any wins / fails (happy to share numbers if you’re data‑nerdy like me)

AnnPT77

I'll be interested to hear what you learn. ⇐= Main point. Remainder below is just idle chit chat. 😉

My intuition, as a successful calorie counter, is to think the sleep thing is a biggie, and maybe cumulative stress. Think about it: As we get later in the day, we're more distant from our last sleep, so more fatigued. When the body is fatigued, but we're still going at (whatever), the body will begin to seek energy, ideally quick energy. What is energy? Food. What is quick energy? Sweets. Voilà, night time cravings.

Yeah, the underlying mechanism is hormones at play, likely. Can you manipulate those intentionally? Maybe.

Stress is in the picture because stress is fatiguing, and it's cumulative across all sources, both physical and psychological. Among physical stresses are some theoretically "good" stresses, like exercise and calorie deficit. They may have good long-term benefits, but they add to cumulative stress in the now.

6:15 of sleep isn't a lot of sleep, and that's without even considering sleep quality. Much of your planned regimen may help with sleep quality. Other than the stretching, you don't seem to have stress management in the equation . . . maybe you don't need it, I don't know.

Not my business, though. 😆

neanderthin

Check out dopamine's role in context to our circadian rhythm which falls under the science of chronobiology, it might interest you. 😊

CrazyMermaid1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48632871#Comment_48632871

For me you’re right on target with the sleep/stress connection to eating. Hadn’t thought about the cumulative effect of sleep deprivation and stress but it makes perfect sense to me.

CrazyMermaid1

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48633144#Comment_48633144

How would we find this?

neanderthin

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48633244#Comment_48633244

Many ways. You can use google, google scholar or you tube and use "dopamine, circadian rhythm, chronobiology and lots should pop up. If your uncomfortable reading studies then there's plenty of doctors and clinicians on you tube that specialize in endocrinology, neuroscience, and circadian biology and the breath of the discussions are varied so it's really up to you to take that where you feel comfortable.

springlering62

I’m either old and unimaginative or old and too imaginative.

I barely dare ask what this even means;

Physical friction for late‑night… "impulses" – grabbed a basic stainless cage; wearing evenings to stop mindless scrolling / edging.

I have pictures in my head of a stainless “cone of shame” like a dog wears, I’m just not sure, um, where it goes.

danielrivera427

some update:

DAY 3, cravings have drop slightly maybe 3/5. I've gone up to 9k steps recently slowly but surely. My sleep hours is way better at 7hours and 30ish minutes, I'm aiming to hit a proper 8 hour cycle soon. As for the cage, someone messaged me about it too lol. I'm not gonna say it straight up because I'm not sure if it's too graphic here but I'll say it vaguely. It's a cage and I got it from a funny named store called 'lockthecock', so yeah, you can probably guess where the cage goes lol. Anyway, it was hurting when I slept so i switch to a silicone one and it really helps me not do the thing. Also overall I noticed a slight change in my mood. I feel more focused. I'll try to finish a week in this experiment and update here how it goes.

springlering62

oh Jesus. What people won’t do for weight loss.

But if it works for you, and saves your eyesight, carry on.

danielrivera427

Hey MFP crew!

I finished this challenge a while ago but forgot to update because my screen time is way way lower since I started this challenge.

It went from 5 hours/day to 2 hours max/day so I consider a 50%+ reduction a good win. Also you guys are correct about the sleep deprivation thing, the sooner I used my phone less with the phone curfew, the sooner I got a good (or at least longer) sleep. It wasn't until Day 7 or 8 ish that I noticed that my willpower was much stronger because I wasnt tempted to order Uber Eats the entire day (I have a bad habit of "window" shopping on the app lol), so I think it's both due to less screen time and fuller sleep.

also I went cold turkey with all of my bad habits (hence the "cage") so I really don't know which had the most impact but it's pretty much using the phone less that led to a better sleep, which led to a better mindset. Although I've read that it actually takes a lot longer to pay off a sleep debt that's accumulated for a long time, so I guess I am less sleep deprived than I thought, luckily.

For Day 10:

Calories: maintained ~2,050 kcal (cut)• Avg steps: 8.5 k• Sleep: 7 h 44 m (Oura)• Cravings: 2/5 intensity after 21:00

Thanks guys for taking the time to respond to me!