How to fall asleep without a smartphone? 5 tips from a somnologist

The habit of sitting on the phone before going to bed affects the quality of sleep. Due to the continuous flow of information, the body has no opportunity to relax, and the glowing screen prevents the production of melatonin (the hormone responsible for the quality of sleep), for the synthesis of which darkness is very important. As a result, we get up in the morning deprived of energy, lethargic and unemotional.

In this article we will try to understand what you need to change in your life to get rid of this harmful addiction.

somnologist

On average, an adult spends from 3 to 8 hours a day on the phone.

How does the phone affect your sleep and well-being?

Olga: Receiving information through gadgets is very different from reading. If when reading, the frontal and premotor areas work first of all, then when we receive information through the phone, the occipital cortex works. In a stationary position, when the head is lowered down to the screen, a person’s blood supply and muscle innervation are impaired.

The entire skull structure (including the joints) is under unphysiologic stress. As a result, we get chronic tension-type headaches. I recommend changing position, lying on your stomach and absorbing information with your head elevated. Regular exercise and massages will also help.

In addition, the constant use of the phone has a negative impact on vision. When the lens of the eye is in a very close position to the screen, vision falls and myopia sets in. To prevent myopia, it is recommended to do eye exercises every 30-40 minutes so that there is no muscle stagnation, as well as to look into the distance and often take a break from the phone during breaks.

SMS mania is a kind of addiction expressed by compulsively sending a large number of messages. For people with obsessive-compulsive disorder, constant texting is a way to relieve anxiety and tension.

Intensive study of content (in 90% of cases the information is negative) in the evenings leads to overexcitement. Then a person’s dopamine, adrenaline and noradrenaline levels increase, resulting in insomnia. I recommend to turn off the phone altogether two hours before bedtime, because any negative content can ruin your regimen.

We need to pay special attention to the screen, which glares at our retinas. Evolutionarily it so happens that with the onset of darkness in the human body begins to produce melatonin. This is the main hormone of the epiphysis, which triggers the mechanism of falling asleep. Melatonin is not a sleeping mediator of the nervous system, but it is responsible for relaxation, which leads to falling asleep. It also affects immunity and is considered a powerful antioxidant that protects against cancer.

Screen glow interferes with the release of melatonin, which in turn disrupts sleep phases and leads to insomnia.

The first third of the night is the period of deep sleep phase. During this time, the production of somatotropic hormone occurs. For athletes, this hormone is especially important because muscle tone, immunity, anabolism, cell growth and division, and muscle metabolism depend on it.

Sleep deficiency and excessive information determine metabolic syndrome. In it, a person’s insulin resistance, cortisol release, and adrenal cortex are impaired. As a result, a person’s blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels increase, diabetes begins to develop. In severe disorders, when sleep becomes anxious and superficial, the production of leptin and ghrelin is disturbed, and a person gets better because of this.

Maybe reading, meditating, drawing, keeping a diary of emotions, filling out a planner for the coming week or taking care of your skin condition will help you prepare for sleep, forgetting about the screen light.

Put your phone away from your bed

It’s really convenient to have your phone next to your pillow or nightstand, because in the morning we can immediately mute the alarm clock. But the presence of a smartphone at your side can make it difficult to fall asleep.

We recommend putting your phone to charge in another corner of the room, and use an electronic watch or fitness bracelet as an alarm clock.

Get rid of the reflex

The modern pace of life requires us to react instantly. When we hear an audible notification, we immediately pick up our phone to react. And it doesn’t matter to us what time of day it is. Such reflexes need to be eradicated. Psychologists recommend that after hours you should not look at notifications immediately, but pause and increase it every day.

This way you can practice mindfulness and concentration, which means it will be easier to get away from your phone before bedtime.

Turn on the color filter and night mode

The yellow filter on your screen neutralizes some of the harmful effects of gadgets, and it also doesn’t interfere with melatonin production. Therefore, if it is not possible for you to fall asleep without smartphones, then help yourself at least a little.

In addition, you can install programs that block your phone for a specified time period. And phones have such a function as sleep mode. There you specify a convenient time to prepare for sleep, about which you will be warned in advance by the phone. After that, the gadget goes into silent mode and does not deliver all calls and messages to the owner.