Summer Challenge: Put Your Phone Away for Better Sleep
The New York Times • • health
Key Points:
- A new summer challenge encourages people to put their phones away 30 minutes before bed to improve sleep quality, based on a 2025 study showing benefits from a digital detox before bedtime.
- Experts warn that using phones before sleep stimulates the brain cognitively and emotionally, which can interfere with falling asleep and lead to interrupted sleep patterns.
- To successfully implement this habit, it is recommended to keep phones out of arm’s reach or in another room, use “do not disturb” mode for essential contacts, and engage in calming or creative analog activities instead.
- Suggested alternatives to phone use before bed include journaling, knitting, meditating, reading analog books, or performing relaxing routines like skincare or gentle stretching.
- Participants are encouraged to try this 30-minute phone-free period nightly for a week to observe potential improvements in sleep onset and duration, with experts emphasizing that even small improvements are valuable.