Sleeping habits

[Daniel Eads]

Getting enough sleep this last year has been difficult as the lines between work and home blur... For some folks, the commute is less than a meter!

In my case, I've had to work at cutting down the amount of time I'm on my phone while I could (or should) be sleeping. Switching to physical books only in bed has helped. A real book doesn't let you "just switch to email for a minute I'm only gonna read one email ok oh no there's 50" (actual® recording of me this time last year).

(actual® footage of me in bed)

But for the times I do use my phone after sunset (aka every night), at least I use night shift to get rid of that angry blue glow. I'll sleep better. Right?

According to this study just published by researchers at BYU, maybe not.

From the results of the study:

For those averaging less than 6.8 hours of sleep, there was no effect of phone condition on sleep outcomes.

So my first thought is: well, that's me! I don't often get more than 7 hours of sleep. Certainly not regularly. So night shift doesn't matter - and I should just turn it off if my eyes don't care? (they do though - I find the softer color more gentle when there's no ambient light).

And then a second thought: "What if I get less than 6.8 hours of sleep because of the phone? What if just having it in the same room is causing me to use it and stay awake rather than just - you know, going to sleep like a responsible adult?"

So for me - I'm going to start just leaving the phone someplace else overnight. What do you do to ensure good sleep habits?

[Hana Kučerová]

Hi @Daniel Eads ,

I started to completely work from home last year and this had a great impact on the quality of my sleep - I couldn't sleep and I didn't feel rested in the morning.

I used to walk a lot, usually a few kilometers per day to get to the office, and suddenly I missed it and I had been tired only mentally, not physically. After I had started to focus on this and added as much physical activity as possible, my sleep improved again.

I'm on my phone before I go to sleep everyday, usually reading something. When I'm tired enough, it takes only a few minutes and I start falling asleep.

[Sri Kumar]

I have a lot of struggles with Sleep, I go to bed in the early morning at 4 or 5 am and then wake up by 10 or 11. 

But slowly I was able to change it by doing social media De-toxification and now I go to bed by 12 am or 1 am max and wake up by 8 am. 

[Tereza Červinková]

Oh get a baby! Haha. Sounds weird, but since I have one, sleep is something I embrace every day. Definitely don't have time for phone once fiiiiiinally in bed :)