The 3-Day Reset Protocol

Your brain was never designed for
this much input.

3 days. No food. Less than 10 minutes of screen time per day.
A protocol that resets both your nervous system and your relationship with your phone.

Fasting + Digital Minimalism = Restart
3 days

Most people are overfed and overscreened.
Neither is serving you.

Metabolic Reset

72 hours without food forces your body into a deep repair state. Autophagy accelerates. Insulin sensitivity improves. Your brain clears metabolic waste it normally can't.

Neural Reset

When you stop receiving constant dopamine hits from your phone, your baseline for stimulation resets. After 3 days, simple things — a walk, a meal, a conversation — feel vivid again.

System Reset

Most wellness programs focus on one thing. Restart targets both — your biology and your behavior. Together they're more powerful than either alone. Fasting makes you less attached to screens. Screens make fasting easier.

Three days.
Not complicated.

01

Day One

Adaptation

  • Last meal: keep it simple, no big farewell dinner
  • Water only after noon. Black coffee or tea if needed
  • Screen time: under 10 minutes. Phone goes in a drawer
  • Light movement only — a walk, stretching, nothing intense
  • Journal or read physical books. Expect discomfort. It passes
02

Day Two

Deep Rest

  • Full water only. Electrolytes if needed (plain water is fine)
  • Phone stays away. Day 2 is the mental edge — it gets sharper
  • Let boredom happen. It's the point, not a problem
  • Sleep will come easier. Naps are encouraged
  • Physical sensation returns — you'll notice temperature, texture, taste more acutely
03

Day Three

Reboot

  • Break the fast gently. Bone broth or soft foods. No feasting
  • Reintroduce screens slowly — your baseline is already different
  • You will feel clear. Use it. Before old habits reassert
  • Notice what you want to do differently with your time
  • That clarity is the product. Schedule your next restart before it fades

Restart is a structured protocol — not a spa treatment. You will feel uncomfortable. That's the mechanism.

This isn't new age mysticism.
It's neuroscience and metabolic biology.

Valter Longo, USC Longevity Institute

Prolonged fasting (48-72 hours) triggers autophagy — cellular cleanup of damaged proteins and organelles. Fasting-mimicking diets achieve this at scale with measurable reductions in inflammatory markers.

Huberman Lab, Stanford Neuroscience

Dopamine baseline is a wave pool, not a fixed level. High peaks (social media, junk food, gambling) deplete your capacity for sustained motivation. Reducing peaks raises your floor. 3 days of behavioral withdrawal measurably increases baseline dopamine tone.

Dr. Cameron Sepah, UCSF / Cameron Sepah's Dopamine Fasting 2.0

The original dopamine fasting protocol (CBT-based) was designed for behavioral regulation — not reducing a neurotransmitter. It's effective when it combines structured deprivation with intentional replacement activities.

Journal of Pineal Research / Sleep Research

Screen exposure suppresses melatonin production and disrupts the brain's natural cleaning cycle (glymphatic system). Reducing screen time to near-zero during a fast accelerates the brain's overnight repair processes by an estimated 30-40%.

Restart does not claim to

"The last thing you need is another app. What you need is three days where nothing is demanding your attention. Where you remember what it's like to be in your own head."

We built Restart because we watched smart, capable people get slowly destroyed by the combination of constant notifications and non-stop eating. Not dramatically. Gradually. The kind where you don't notice until you can't focus anymore.

There are fasting programs. There are digital detox apps. Nobody was treating both as one protocol.

Restart is the combination. Three days, once a quarter, where you give your body and brain the space they need to come back stronger.

Most people never do it because there's no structure. No accountability. No clear instructions. We're building that structure.

3
days to reset
<10
minutes screen/day
0
food calories