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This January, I decided it was time to do something about it.
On the flip side,reading before bedhas been linked to better sleep.
A bedtime routine can include any relaxing activity
After a week of no-phones-in-bed, here were my main takeaways.
Upsetting as it is to admit it, the process of putting it away felt like a shift.
I had decided that I’d primarily swap my phone for reading.
A bedtime routine can include any relaxing activity
But I found without the distraction of a phone, I had time for other virtuous pre-bed activities.
These are things I don’t really do, but I embraced during my no-phone week.
It also served as an important reminder that doomscrolling is far from only way to procrastinate.
I found weekend evenings particularly difficult.
If so, they are better people than I. I did not read on these days.
Ididn’tdoomscroll, though, so that’s something.
A bedtime routine can include any relaxing activity
Mentally, I found sticking to a ‘good’ bedtime routine on weekend nights more difficult, too.
I felt irrationally annoyed, and like I was being tricked out of my free time.
It might be skincare session, a shower, a stretching sequence.
The idea is that your brain starts to associate you doing those actions with getting ready to sleep.
How and why might screens affect sleep?
There is evidence that using screens in the run-up to bedtime is linked with poorer sleep.
The findings were similar to those found in previous Sleep in America polls.
So why is this the case?
One part of it is to do with light.
Your body regulates its sleep-wake cycle primarily by responding to light signals.
That’s why it’s sodifficult to wake up in the winter.
The LEDs illuminating your gadget screens also emit blue light, but in much smaller quantities.
Essentially, the opposite of what you want when you’re trying to wind down.
