It is no secret that a lot of us struggle to get enough hours of sleep every night. The world we live in requires us to be switched on almost every waking hour of the day, when you’re not receiving a ping on slack from your workmates, you’re thinking about the bank of WhatsApp messages you need to reply to. At this stage, we’re doomscrolling our way through TikTok just to relax.
Yet, sleep is essential for us to function as it can help to improve your attention and concentration, help to keep your heart healthy and your immune system strong, and it can help look after your mental and emotional wellbeing too.
A recent study found that at least 20% of British adults aren’t getting enough sleep, and 66% say that poor sleep negatively affects their mental health. Adults need around seven to nine hours of sleep per day, and the trick to achieving this might be easier than you think.
An hour or two before bedtime, simply put your phone on “bedtime mode”, “do not disturb” or “airplane mode” and this will stop notifications, texts and calls coming through to your phone and will often turn the phone’s colour to greyscale too, which can make using the phone before bed less tempting. With the notifications turned off, this will also result in less distractions before bed, and less distractions in the middle of the night if you check your phone to see the time.
“Putting our phones on do not disturb, or turning them off completely, can sometimes make us feel we are missing out, however doing so allows us to stop missing out on our own real world life after the day slows down and especially when we go to sleep,” sleep coach Tracy Hannigan explains.
“The benefits of putting your phone on DND at night include a reduced temptation to ‘check’ the phone for notifications, which leads to less light intrusion which can affect melatonin production – but especially a reduction in mental stimulation. There’s rarely a real need to scroll on social media at 2am, and a sense of urgency to do so can keep you awake – never mind any upset that you might experience by seeing the content of your newsfeed.”
The greyscale turned on by the do not disturb setting is especially important as it’s not as intense as the blue light emitted by colourful screens which can be harmful to look at in the middle of the night.
“The light from your phone is blue spectrum light, which is on the same spectrum as sunlight, so looking at your phone in the middle of the night switches off melatonin receptors which help you sleep,” Charlie Morley, sleep expert and author of Wake Up to Sleep says. “Effectively, blue spectrum light can reduce your melatonin output which can potentially hamper sleep.