Going to bed without your phone is not only a strategy to use your phone less, but also to sleep better and to improve your health.
If I could give you a pill, and this pill would improve your memory, help you live longer, reduce your blood pressure, increase the quality of your skin, hair and look and will perform muscle repair, who wouldn’t want to take that pill?
Well, that pill is called sleep.
I can’t stress enough how it is absolutely vital to have a good night’s rest.
Stay away from light at night. It’s going to get harder to fall asleep because the emitted blue light suppresses the melatonin neurotransmitter.
And please, for your current sake and your future sake:
do not sleep with your phone underneath your pillow.
again:
do not sleep with your phone underneath your pillow.
Sleeping with your phone underneath your pillow is the quickest way to become unhealthy and unhappy. Period.
In order to resist the temptation of using your phone, have a designated place outside the bedroom where you leave your phone.
Get yourself an alarm clock instead.
You want to wind down and get yourself some downtime before you go to bed.
Don’t get anxious because of a last-minute notification that will make you contemplate and restless in bed.
Have a good night practice that will improve your sleep hygiene.
In bed read a book or journal about your day.
Have that moment with yourself and with your spouse or partner lying next to you.
No screens should be allowed in the room when you go to sleep.
Not even a television.
The bedroom is for sleep and intimacy that’s it.
When you wake up, don’t check your phone immediately.
Say good morning to your spouse first.
Think about a positive message you want to read that will set you up for the day.
Don’t play Russian roulette by allowing your phone to show you the very first message of the day.
This could be a notification that may not serve you, which means you will start the day on the wrong foot.
So aside from your evenings, control your mornings.
Don’t allow the voices of the virtual world to enter your brain first thing when you wake up.
Have your morning routine so you take care of yourself first, before you say okay smartphone, what have I missed?
It is vital we finish and begin the day properly. We should honor the day when it ends and when a new one starts.
The virtual world has no business to interfere, we need to make sure our mindset and intentions are all set when we start the day.
Start the day with a positive message like an affirmation and set intentions for that day, so you will increase the chances drastically that today will be a good day.
So no screens before going to sleep, definitely no screens during sleep, and no screens immediately after sleep. Preserve your mind, body, spirit and health.