All work and no play isn't good for your health. Just ask the 'party coach.'

Evan Cudworth bills himself as the world’s first “party coach,” but that doesn’t mean he’s spending all his time downing shots under strobe lights until the wee hours of the morning. For Cudworth, “partying” could mean dancing at a nightclub or hitting up a music festival. But it could also mean meeting friends for brunch or taking a music-pounding hot yoga class. It’s all about letting loose and making memories — and that, he says, is good for our well-being.

Yes, amid a world of wellness in which influencers pride themselves on “clean living” and going to bed early — longevity guru Bryan Johnson, for one, refuses to get less than seven and a half hours of sleep a night — Cudworth is making the case that partying can be a key component of good health. Using skills he picked up while working in elite college admissions as well as music and nightlife, Cudworth now meets with clients one-on-one to help them work through his seven-stage “The Party Within” framework, which is designed to help people build confidence, deepen connections and create more meaningful social experiences through habits and rituals. The goal? For everybody to achieve their dream social life.

There’s “a lot of wellness stuff out there that is helping us optimize our lives,” Cudworth tells Yahoo Life. But what if we looked at partying not as a vice or setback to our virtuous wellness pursuits (lemon water, cold plunges, etc.) but as something that might also help us live our best lives? It’s about building a “sustainable social life” and engaging in activities that help connect us with others face-to-face — and getting “out of our heads and the algorithms.”

So, should you be partying more? Here’s how it can help foster friendships that boost your health — and tips for brushing up on your social skills if your clubbing days are long behind you.

Americans are craving connection

Cudworth’s pro-party platform comes at a time when Americans are craving connection. In 2023, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared loneliness an American epidemic. Meanwhile, a 2024 Yahoo News/YouGov poll of 1,794 U.S. adults found that 19% say they “always” or “frequently” experience loneliness. That same year, the American Friendship Project found that 42% of people aren’t as close to their friends as they would like to be.

Studies also continue to find links between loneliness and poor health outcomes, reinforcing the understanding that spending time with others is important to one’s overall well-being.

Some people are calling for change. In January, writer Ellen Cushing declared in the Atlantic that Americans need to “party more” — i.e., getting out of our phone-filled comfort zones and send out invitations to an IRL event. Influencer Christina Najjar, aka Tinx, also lamented the death of club culture in an opinion piece for Grazia last summer, writing that our obsession with social media and checking our phones has killed our ability to let loose.

“I wasn’t uploading to IG Stories, I had no fear a video of me dancing would be uploaded to TikTok to be mocked and I certainly didn’t have 59 iMessages to go through at any given time,” Tinx wrote. “Clubbing used to be a thing you did to forget the world, and now with our phones, that’s impossible.”

How to party more — and why it matters

Experts like Cudworth say it’s still possible to party in a culture dominated by screens. In fact, those screens are a reason why we need to party and have more real-world interactions. Rather than leaning into what he calls a “life of avoidance,” getting back out into social settings can help us remember “what it means to be human” — which in turn, benefits our overall health.

Cudworth recommends not being so rigid about what wellness looks like. Is going to bed early so you can wake up early for a 6 a.m. Pilates class good for you? Yes. But accepting a last-minute invite to catch up with friends instead has its own benefits, like building memories and offsetting feelings of loneliness and isolation.

After all, maintaining social fitness — through nurturing relationships and engaging with others — is crucial to our well-being. Dr. Gail Saltz, associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, previously told Yahoo Life that “we have recognized through research and public education that being socially fit is incredibly valuable to our mood, health and life satisfaction.”

Saba Harouni Lurie, a marriage and family therapist and owner of Los Angeles-based Take Root Therapy, tells Yahoo Life that there are many mental health benefits to partying. For one, it allows us to “spend time with friends and meet new people in a contained and loosely structured environment.”

“When we spend time with others chatting, listening to music, dancing and playing games, we take a break from our daily responsibilities and pursue joy and connection,” she says. “Often, when we are partying, we release endorphins, which can relieve stress.”

That rings true for Cudworth. "The connections and the people that I meet sustain me spiritually in ways that just pursuing wellness does not.”

Ultimately, the time spent with other people — and doing things that push you out of your comfort zone — is “what you remember on your deathbed,” Cudworth argues. Plus, “novelty of experience is vital to believing that we are living a life filled with purpose,” which is something backed by research.

Tips from a party coach

Want to get some of this social time back in your life? Cudworth says that you don’t have to hit up the hottest club in town in order to get your partying fix — though if that’s something that interests you, it’s certainly an option.

Here are his tips for being more party-minded:

Don’t stress out about being the perfect host: “When I was broke in New York and lived in a matchbox-sized apartment, I would have people over, and we would sit on my bed, and we would talk,” Cudworth says. “I think there’s a fear among people in younger generations that ‘Oh, my space is my space,’ or, ‘I’ll be ashamed if my place isn’t perfectly clean.’ But partying doesn’t have to be ‘clean’ or ‘aesthetic.’ Don’t guilt yourself into wasting your life because you needed your space a certain way.”

Try a day party: If you like to dance but aren’t into late nights out, search for a day party, Cudworth says. There are also sober options, such as the recurring dance party Daybreaker.

Don’t be afraid to reconnect with people: Cudworth notes that oftentimes he’ll see social media posts that say to cut off people who don’t reach out to you to make plans. He disagrees; trying to always find that perfect equal-effort relationship may actually stop you from connecting with special people. “I’ve had so many lovely friends that I’ve reconnected with after five or even 10 years of not speaking,” he says. “Now it’s like, ‘Great, let’s hang out.’ It makes me sad that people limit their lives based on therapyspeak from TikTok.”

Look for fun in unexpected places: Just because you spent your 20s at raves or keg parties doesn’t mean you have to do that now. Cudworth says it’s better not to chase “nostalgia” or the kind of partying you did as a younger person. Instead, find ways to party that suit the things you like now. One example: Coffeehouse parties with DJs he’s seen pop up in Chicago on Saturday mornings. “People are just vibing in the morning and then hanging out afterward.”