Your Phone & Your Bed.

The screen time reduction series continues with…..your bed. But first, a few notes on sleep.

Sleep is king.

Every single organ and system (especially our nervous system) benefits from quality sleep - our brain “washes itself”, our gut and immune system work more efficiently, and our cells regenerate. It is the ultimate healer.

Research done on sleep deprivation links poor sleep with depression, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, weak immunity, and even neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s.

It. is. king.

Unfortunately, the modern world provides no shortage of ways to sabotage our sleep, with our devices being the most brutal offender - research now links nighttime screen exposure to a greater number of sleep disturbances, later sleep onset, and shorter sleep duration.

If you are interested in good quality sleep, tightening up your phone usage/screen time at night is a must.

So how do we do it?

I think the habit modification with the most leverage is keeping your bed screen-free.

Most folks can intellectualize the fact that lying in bed doom-scrolling the news, fuming about Aunt Linda’s latest post on Facebook, or scrambling your brain with TikTok after TikTok is not conducive to high-quality sleep. However, actually keeping your phone out of your bed is easier said than done. A quick scenario:

You have decided you are going to really start prioritizing sleep. Your goal is to be showered and in bed by 10pm. It’s night one of your quality sleep journey and you’ve nailed it - you are under the covers at 9:58. You reach over to your nightstand and grab your phone to set your alarm for the morning. You set it, but before you put your phone back on the nightstand you check your Instagram/TikTok/Facebook one last time. At 10:37 you finally put your phone back on the nightstand and turn out the light. You toss and turn for the next half hour while your brain works to calm itself down. You finally fall asleep after 11.

For most folks, some variation of this story probably sounds familiar, so let’s sort it out.

First, the alarm.

The vast majority of folks use their phone as an alarm clock and when it comes to getting devices out of their bed, that is typically the first and most important point of friction. I could just end the post by saying “go get an actual alarm clock”, but that’s not particularly helpful, so instead we’ll work within the “your phone is also your alarm clock” parameter. A few options:

Option 1: Do not charge your phone on your nightstand. Get it out of arm’s reach, but within a distance that you can hear it in the morning. Plug it in to charge BEFORE getting in bed. Voila, you’re in bed without your phone. Grab a book.

Option 2: If you do decide to keep your phone on your nightstand while you sleep, put it on Airplane Mode BEFORE you get in bed. Knowing that your phone is not receiving messages, not connected to wifi, etc provides at least a little bit of friction between you and zombie scrolling.The act of flipping to Airplane Mode also serves as an important demarcation of “rest mode” i.e. “signaling” to your body that it’s time to get ready for sleep - research shows that sleep quality is significantly enhanced by having a consistent bedtime routine with multiple “signals” for your body that it’s time to rest.

N.B. Option 2 obviously only works for folks who use Airplane Mode while they sleep. A quick note about this:

Many folks feel strongly that they need to be able to receive calls, texts, etc while sleeping - maybe their child stays out late, an older relative is sick, etc. Totally understandable, but I would still encourage a nightly evaluation of how important it is that you can be reached while you’re sleeping. If you don’t have any extenuating circumstances like the ones listed above, ask yourself “could it wait until morning?” If the answer is yes, flip on Airplane Mode.

Finally, although I presented a few quick strategies for keeping your phone out of bed, I think this one truthfully comes down to self-discipline. You can always try to “hack” sleep, exercise, nutrition, etc but sometimes a person really just needs willpower. I think keeping your phone out of your bed is one of those times. Put a method in place (like the two I discussed), but your success will rely most heavily on your ability to just say no to your phone. Good luck.

P.S. The same applies for the morning. Starting your day in bed scrolling or reading emails/texts is arguably the WORST way to begin your day. Always start the day on YOUR terms. Establish the energy you want to bring into the world before getting scrambled/influenced by external forces.

“In the morning when you rise unwillingly, let this thought be present - I am rising to do the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?” - Marcus Aurelius