Guide · sleep · 3 min read
How to stop scrolling in bed, when you are short on time
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
Here is what tends to work, in the order that helps most.
Pick this one when you are short on time.
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
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.
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 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.
What to do when it does not work
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.
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.
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.
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.