What Keeps You Awake Lying in Bed at Night?

Ever find yourself awake at 2 AM and thinking why the heck you’re not asleep? Exactly, me too.

There seems to be an unseen force field around my bed that keeps me from falling asleep. That force field isn’t that strange. Our phones are the bright rectangles of doom that we hold in our hands.

Please allow me to draw a picture for you. It is past dinnertime. Tomorrow is a big day, so you should go to sleep. It’s your turn to drive the kids to and from school, or you have that meeting you’ve been dreading. Hence, you chose to hit the hay. After brushing your teeth, putting on your coziest clothes, and getting under the covers, you feel good. There is no light in the room and the temperature is just right. It’s a great place to sleep. Well, except for one thing. You check your phone “one last time.”

At first, it seems harmless. A quick look at the notifications you have. But then you see it: a message from a friend, someone who liked your most recent post, or even a news story that grabs your attention. You’re all of a sudden in the rabbit hole. Moving around by scrolling, pulling, and tapping. You don’t even realize it’s after midnight when the minutes turn into hours.

This story has been told for a very long time (or at least since smartphones). Because they are too lazy to put down their phones and try to sleep. All of us have been stuck in the endless loop and felt helpless. It’s like someone put a spell on us that prevents us from stopping. Since when did you think about why? What’s wrong with closing our eyes and putting down the phone?

Many people, especially teens and adults, have trouble sleeping because they use their phones all the time. 80% of kids who use their phones while they should be sleeping do so, according to research. This makes their sleep shorter. Many people keep their devices close by at night.

For example, 68% of teens keep their phones close by, which keeps them from sleeping because of Notifications. This trend also affects adults, as studies have shown that using a smartphone at night is linked to having trouble sleeping.

Since more than 80% of Americans have smartphones and 65% of those check them at night, this has a big effect on the quality of sleep for many people.

Let’s talk about science for a minute.

It looks like daytime to our minds because our phones give off blue light. We have an internal clock that tells us when it’s time to sleep and wake up. This messes with that clock.

Melatonin is the hormone that makes us sleepy. Blue light at night can stop our bodies from making it. We’re telling our brains to wake up when we look through our phones in bed, not to relax.

It’s not just the blue light, though. It’s also the things we read and watch. Emails, news sites, and social media are all made to keep us interested. We feel good every time we like, write, or share something. This is called dopamine.

It’s like a little treat that keeps us coming back for more. There’s a tough loop that needs to be broken.

This enemy that comes out at night hurts us mentally and physically. Not getting enough sleep can cause many problems, such as memory loss, mood swings, and even immune system damage. It’s funny, isn’t it? We use our phones to escape for a short time and get a dopamine boost before bed, but it costs us a lot more in the long run.

Breaking the Spell

How are we going to break the spell? How can we get back our nights and get the peaceful sleep we need so badly? We need to make a bedtime routine that doesn’t include our phones. Maybe it’s just lying in bed and letting your mind wander while reading a book. You need to find something that helps you relax besides that bright screen.

It’s also about drawing lines in the sand. That could mean no phones in the bedroom or a hard time limit for using screens. No matter what it is, the goal is to make a space that helps you sleep, not scroll.

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The Bedtime Story We Deserve

Let’s change the story to sleep. Let’s end it with us happily going off to sleep instead of leaving us bleary-eyed and antsy with our phones. Stick with it, because it won’t be easy, but think of the benefits.

Better health, more energy, and the ability to concentrate better. Do you agree that it’s worth it?

Now, when you feel like getting your phone tonight, remember this story. Remember how the spell works, how much it costs, and what you need to do to stop it. Putting down the phones and getting the rest we need tonight. The world of shares, likes, and never-ending content will still be there in the morning.

A good night’s sleep, though? That can’t be replaced.

And who knows, maybe now that we have control over our nights, the things that keep us up won’t be able to stop us. By putting down the phone, we might find that the key to a good night’s sleep was right there in our hands the whole time.

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I hope you enjoyed the read. If you like this then subscribe to my medium Newsletter.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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