How to put your phone away 1 hour before bed
Every month I encourage my Instagram community to join me in a monthly challenge. The challenge for March was to put our phones away 1 hour before bed.
Why should we put our phone away 1 hour before bed?
The obvious response is the effect of blue light on our sleep patterns. Although there has been conflicting studies on this topic and there are now “night shift” settings and blue light-blocking glasses, I’m still one to believe that being on our phones before bed impacts our sleep. Whether it’s because of the blue light or simply because the flashing images, buzzing notifications and information overload has been proven to elevate cortisol levels - if you’re struggling to fall asleep at night ask yourself:
Did I give myself a stress-inducing information overload right before getting into bed? (yes even just quickly checking your messages can cause this!)
Another reason why we should be putting our phones away 1 hour before bed is to give ourselves the luxury of time taken to ourselves. Even if time on our phone can feel like a moment nicely spent, the truth is that looking at our phones can subconsciously throw us into the comparison traps of social media, make us remember the messages we still haven’t replied to, or give us a feeling of pressure and urgency.
If you feel like you’re constantly responding to other’s expectations and you struggle to tune in with yourself, then you would really benefit from an hour of phone-less enjoyment in the evening.
Why do we struggle to put our phones away 1 hour before bed?
I recently did an Instagram Poll to find out which of the two following reasons were standing in our way from putting our phones away 1 hour before bed:
I forget to put it away 1 hour before bed - 44%
I have nothing better to do in the evening - 56%
How to remember to put your phone away 1 hour before bed…
Here are a few tips that I personally used all month long:
Set 2 alarms on your phone: one for 1 hour before your desired bed time (8:30 P.M. in my case) and one for 30 minutes before that as a warning (8:00 P.M. in my case)
When the first alarm rings in the evening, send any last minute messages you need to, you’ll be putting your phone away in 30 minutes
When the 2nd alarm rings, put your phone straight on airplane mode without thinking twice, make it quick and painless - like ripping off a band-aid
Put your phone to charge far from your bed and out of sight
What should I do other than look at my phone in the evening?
As suspected, the majority of us voted that we just have nothing better to do…
I would make the strong case that instead of having “nothing better to do” it’s actually because we’ve made such a habit of it. We associate evenings with catching up on messages and checking our social media, that it feels like there’s nothing else to do because we’ve never sought it out.
During this monthly challenge, I switched my evening routine. The hour before going to bed I would…
Shower
Make myself a herbal tea
Prepare my agenda for the next day (set my top 3 priorities)
Read / do Sudoku in bed
We often talk about morning routines, but we' sometimes forget the power of an evening routine that calms our nervous system and prepared our body for rest. If you want to create your phone-less evening routine, here are a few ideas:
Get yourself ready for the following day (prepare your clothes, breakfast items etc)
Go for a gentle walk (walking reduces the stress response which will help you sleep)
Light some candles
Take a lukewarm shower (not too hot - our body temperature needs to drop in order to fall asleep)
Do some light stretching / breathing / meditation with relaxing music