Sleep soundly with less screen time

Take small steps toward tech-free sleep

It can be easy to take sleep for granted. However, not getting enough good-quality sleep at night can affect your mood and productivity during the day, so it pays to make it a priority. Even if that means powering down your devices or setting new boundaries around using tech at night.

Good health depends on sleeping seven hours each night. Sleeping less than that can actually increase your risk for:

• Weight gain
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Type 2 diabetes
• Mental health issues

Here are five simple ways you can change up your nighttime tech routine to help you sleep better and longer:

1. Keep your phone out of arm’s reach. Charging your device away from your bed can help reduce that late-night temptation to check in on things.
2. Dim the brightness on your device if you need to use it before bed. The bright light coming from your screen can interfere with your body’s sleep cycle and melatonin production.
3. Set a reminder or an alarm to remind you when it’s time to power down for the evening, so you don’t end up scrolling until 2 a.m.
4. Install an app-blocking app to lock you out of your biggest scrollinducing distractors after a certain hour.
5. Turn on your device’s “do not disturb” function to block incoming notifications while you’re trying to rest.

Choose sleep over screen time. Pick one of these suggestions to try tonight for a better night’s sleep.