Words by: Kaleb Evans-Lao
Going to bed for most of my life has been a difficult process. Even before I had access to the internet I would read library books until 3am, then ask for more books the next day. Over the years I have tried many strategies to get myself to sleep and wake at a reasonable hour. One notable method was screaming as soon as I got up to put myself in a panicked state, unfortunately this worked too well and I was firmly asked to stop this by my parents. But during the break I decided to have a good crack at cutting down on the amount of time I spend in bed scrolling away at Instagram and Youtube (I don't have Snapchat because I have no need to contact David Seymour anytime soon).
First, I’d like to recommend some programs that will help with your focus. For your phone, look up “no scroll” in the app store. This app limits the amount of time you can scroll on certain apps you choose, and also prevents you from scrolling outright. If you are more of a browser scroller, like myself, install “block site” as a chrome extension from the chrome web store. This—while being somewhat pestering—blocks certain websites from being accessible.
More physical measures include putting your devices (all of them) on the other side of the room from your bed, so you have to get up and walk to turn your alarm off. It prevents you from just stopping your alarm and then continuing to sleep. Speaking of alarms, try to set your alarm noise to something more upbeat. The dull drones of piano and violins don't really stir me out of bed; I personally wake up to “Puppet Boy” by DEVO, and it has helped a surprising amount.
Another method is the more mindful way of scrolling. For me I practiced noticing when I was scrolling—often it can be an unconscious act where you suddenly find it's been an hour and you’ve just been looking at reels. When you notice yourself scrolling, thinking “am I having fun?” seems a silly question, given the fact that you are probably wanting to have fun scrolling, but I find all too often that you're chasing a hope that you find something entertaining, and not actually having fun or relaxing. If you can tell you are not having fun scrolling then stop and do something else.
“Comparison is the thief of joy” in a similar vein you must not let other habits define your own. Often when discussion around sleep schedules or time spent scrolling come up they tend to be a competition about how terribly someone sleeps. “I go to bed at 2am” “its ok I go to bed at 4am” so on and so forth. If you go to bed at 1am then you may be inclined to feel much better about yourself. The opposite is true as well. The truth is you have to judge yourself by your own standards. If you wake up feeling groggy and feel tired throughout the day, perhaps you should rethink when you go to sleep. If you, at 2am, see a ted-ed video about how teenagers are more likely to stay up late, don't use that as an excuse to stay up till 3am before passing out.
Some more final tips, make sure your devices have a blue light filter and have dark mode (for me both are built into my phone at its 5+ years old). This is an easy change that while it won't stop you staying up, it will help you not get as much eye strain while doing so. To conclude, these are some of the tactics I found useful. While I hope they are of some use, I cannot guarantee that they will be. I haven't fully gone off scrolling late into the night, but I hope that this will at least get discussion going around on an individual level. We can combat screen time with practical measures we can all take.