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 texts 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. It can help to improve your attention and concentration, keep your heart healthy and your immune system strong, and 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. And more than one-third of US adults sleep less than seven hours per night on average, according to the Sleep Foundation.
Adults need around seven to nine hours of sleep per day, and the trick to achieving this might be easier than you think. The answer: An hour or two before bedtime, simply put your phone on bedtime mode, do not disturb, or airplane mode. This will stop notifications, texts, and calls coming through to your phone and will often turn the phone’s color to grayscale too, which can make using the phone before bed less tempting. With the notifications turned off, this will also result in fewer distractions before bed as well as less distraction if you wake up in the middle of the night and 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,” says sleep coach Tracy Hannigan. “However, doing so allows us to stop missing out on our own real-world life after the day slows down, especially when we go to sleep.
“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 2 a.m., 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 grayscale turned on by the do not disturb setting is especially important as it is not as intense as the blue light that colorful screens emit, which can be harmful to look at in the middle of the night.
