Guide · sleep · 3 min read
How to stop scrolling in bed, in the order that helps, when you have been putting it off
The phone is not the problem. The fact that it is within reach and there is nothing else to do is the problem. Here is what actually helps.
Start here
This is not complicated. It is inconvenient, which is why most people skip it.
You have been putting this off. Starting is the only step that matters.
If you only do one thing from this page, do the first point below. It is first because it removes the most friction for the least effort.
What helps
Do not try to go from two hours to zero. Cut it to twenty minutes and let the rest of the evening be boring. Boring is what falling asleep is made of.
If you are scrolling because you are not tired, you are probably not tired because you are scrolling. Break the loop from the other end: get up twenty minutes earlier for a week.
Replace the scroll with something that is also easy but finite: a paper book, a magazine, a crossword. The issue is not stimulation, it is the absence of an ending.
What to do when it does not work
Charge the phone somewhere that is not the bedroom. Not on the floor beside you — in another room, ideally one you have to stand up to reach.
If it must be in the room, buy a cheap alarm clock and put the phone on aeroplane mode from a fixed time. The decision then happens once, at 9pm, instead of forty times at midnight.
Notice when the scrolling starts. For most people it is the moment they get into bed, not the moment they feel sleepy. Move your bedtime routine earlier by twenty minutes so the phone is not competing with nothing.
Questions people ask
Is blue light really the problem?
It is part of it, but the bigger factor is that scrolling is engaging and open-ended. A screen with an ending is less disruptive than a feed without one.
What if I need my phone for work?
Then keep it, and move the charging cable to the kitchen. You will still hear an actual call. You will not hear a notification you have set to silent.
Written for people who want the practical version. No accounts, no tracking, no newsletter wall.
If this is not the angle you need, try What to do when everything is too much — the basics, done properly, when you are cold and want to be warm, When the inner voice will not let something go — the version for a bad week, when you cannot concentrate on anything else or Breathing exercises that help during panic — an honest guide, when you are not in the mood.