For 12 years, I did one year ON, one year OFF (2012 - 2024).

On my ON years, I felt compelled to drink, every night I had at least a beer, if for no reason other than, I wanted to make the "most of it".

On my OFF years, I didn't feel the need to drink, and generally slept better, lost weight and was more focused.

Stopped drinking completely after that.

I applaud your commitment to statistical rigor.

On a related note, “sequential analysis” is the keyword in stats for experimental designs that allow for stopping the experiment early in the face of clear results: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequential_analysis#