It Is Time We Start Putting Our Phones to Bed Too

Friends, if you are falling asleep every night with your phone within arm’s reach, it may be time to rethink that little bedtime habit.

I know, I know.

You need your alarm.

You might need to hear from your kids.

You like to check the weather before you fall asleep.

And somehow, five minutes of “just checking Facebook” turns into 45 minutes of watching dogs argue with their owners, saving recipes we may never make, and wondering how we ended up watching a woman reorganize her refrigerator at 11:37 at night.

We have all been there.

But maybe our phones need a bedtime too.

Your Bedroom Should Be a Place to Shut Down

For most of human history, bedtime meant exactly that: bedtime.

There was no glowing screen beside our pillow. No notifications. No endless supply of entertainment. No temptation to check one more email, one more text, one more post, or one more headline.

Our bodies had a chance to understand that the day was over.

Now, many of us crawl into bed and continue consuming information right up until the moment we close our eyes.

And then we wonder why our brains refuse to shut up.

Phones can interfere with sleep in several ways. The light from screens, stimulating content, late-night conversations, work emails, notifications, and the temptation to keep scrolling can all make it harder to mentally transition into sleep.

Even when we are not actively using the phone, simply knowing that it is sitting right there can make it awfully easy to reach for it.

And About That Alarm Excuse…

One of the biggest reasons we keep our phones beside the bed is the alarm.

But let’s be real.

Maybe having to actually get out of bed to turn the alarm off is exactly what some of us need.

If your phone is sitting across the room instead of six inches from your face, you cannot hit snooze eight times without technically participating in some form of morning exercise.

Win-win.

Put the phone on the opposite side of the bedroom.

Put it on a dresser.

Put it near the bedroom door.

And if you really want to commit, put it in the master bathroom.

You will survive the journey.

I promise.

What About Cell Phone Radiation?

Cell phones use radiofrequency energy when communicating with cellular networks, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth devices.

Scientists and health agencies have studied radiofrequency exposure for years, and research into possible long-term effects continues. Current evidence has not established that simply sleeping beside a properly functioning cell phone causes health problems.

So I am not suggesting we panic, wrap our bedrooms in aluminum foil, or throw our iPhones into the backyard every night.

But if you would rather reduce unnecessary wireless activity while you sleep, putting your phone into airplane mode can significantly reduce its wireless transmissions when cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connections are turned off.

For me, though, the bigger reason to move the phone is much simpler:

I want my brain to know that bedtime means bedtime.

Give Yourself a Little Distance

Try this tonight.

Before you crawl into bed:

1. Set your alarm.
2. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb or airplane mode if appropriate for you.
3. Plug it in somewhere you cannot reach from the bed.
4. Give yourself at least a little phone-free time before going to sleep.

Even 20 or 30 minutes can create a completely different nighttime routine.

Read a book.

Pray.

Journal.

Stretch.

Talk to your spouse.

Make a list for tomorrow.

Think.

Or — crazy concept here — just lie there and do absolutely nothing.

Our brains are allowed to be bored sometimes.

Maybe We Need to Go Back to 1999

Remember when we went to bed without knowing what 347 people we went to high school with were doing?

Somehow we made it.

We did not need TikTok to relax.

We did not need Instagram to get sleepy.

We did not need to respond to an email at 10:42 p.m.

And nobody needed to know immediately that someone else’s sourdough starter was doing exceptionally well.

Life went on.

Maybe there is something worth borrowing from that time.

Not the dial-up internet.

Definitely not the dial-up internet.

But the ability to disconnect.

Put Yourself to Bed — Not the Internet

Our phones are wonderful tools. I use mine constantly, and I am certainly not standing on a soapbox pretending I have mastered this.

This is something I have to remind myself of too.

But there should probably be a point every day when the world no longer has immediate access to us.

A time when the texts can wait.

The emails can wait.

The scrolling can wait.

The recipes can wait.

And yes, even the funny animal videos can wait until tomorrow.

So tonight, set the alarm, plug that phone in somewhere across the room, and give yourself permission to disconnect.

Your phone needs to go to bed.

And so do you.