Are you Prioritizing Phone over Sleep?
Sleep! A state of rest most of us enjoy. Those eight hours are of utmost importance for our body and mind. But is our phone stealing those precious hours from us?
Well yes! A research study from TechRepublic shows that 66% of the total population scroll through their phones before sleeping. Well isn’t that alarming. People are giving priority to everything else but their sleep.
Let’s take a deep dive and understand what exactly is there that is tempting people to change their priority?
WHY is our priority changing?
1.Foremost reason is its availability, ease of its availability makes it difficult for the people to avoid it!
2. Habit: -Subconsciously it has become a part of a daily nighttime routine to scroll down, watch just another episode or play a game; also Checking up on your social life, scrolling through social media seems more appealing just before bedtime
3. Dopamine Hit: — watching your favorite show or seeing your favorite person’s photos or videos gives you temporary lasting happiness which is very addictive
4. People also take it as a self-reward, they get a feeling that they’ve relaxed by watching a video and have given enough time to themselves after a very hectic day
5. It’s also a way of escaping from unpleasant thoughts, those thoughts which are difficult to address
How it affects us?
Well, let's simplify this by dividing it into two sections
- Physical Effects
- Mental Effects
Physical Effects
1.You tend to feel fatigued
2. Stress on eyes
3. Gradually may lead to cardiovascular diseases
4. Diabetes
5. Researchers at Hong Kong University also found that less sleep is connected to breast cancer in females and prostate in male, they concluded that there is discernible DNA damage in those who were sleep-deprived
6. Obesity is also related to less amount of sleep lets understand how?
There are two types of hormones in our body leptin and ghrelin. Leptin commands your brain to stop eating and ghrelin commands you to eat more. Researchers have concluded that the person who sleeps less has more amount of ghrelin than leptin which justifies the weight gain and obesity-related problems
Mental Health effects
Before getting into mental health effects, let’s face it! it’s hard to stop the urge of scrolling through or watching that one last episode and when you act upon your urge you often end up feeling guilty about spending hours gazing at the screen rather than sleeping
1.Our mental health is tremendously affected by looking at others life or constantly reading obnoxious news
2.We are living in the age of INSTANT GRATIFICATION where everyone wants everything instantly without struggling much for it. Exactly like how we get our groceries, news, and a daily dose of entertainment with just one click. But this is seriously changing our brain processing because, activities such as learning new things, studying, and creativity demand some time but due to the habit of Instant Gratification people find it boring and tend to avoid it, this clearly justifies the Reduced attention time in people nowadays.
this also affects our social behavior because things like trust and relationship take time to flourish so a person might become self-centric
What can be done to stop this?
Right now you may feel that it is ‘Easier said than done! but we all have to start somewhere; let’s see how you can subdue your urge
1.Acceptance
First things first ‘it is of utmost importance to accept if you are spending hours gazing at the screen without a particular outcome
2. Set ACHIEVABLE targets
DO NOT say “I, Will, not touch my phone” After all it’s a device that keeps you connected with the rest of the world.
SELF-control plays a pivotal role here. Decide a specific time to check the phone, set timers that will remind you to take a break
Do meditation and exercise to get a sweet night sleep
Acknowledge the unpleasant feelings (guilt, anger, sadness, anxiety) gently respond to them. Acting upon them harshly may add to the unpleasant feelings further altering your sleep.
If there are some hard feelings speak up to your parents’ friends or even to yourself.
Try to delay the gratification by drinking a cup of water or making the bed and take that moment to ask yourself ‘Do I have to act upon my urge right now?’.
Be aware that while working on limiting the screen time, there will be days where you will be tempted and will act on your urge and that is okay.
So in conclusion I would like to say sleep for good 8 hours, prioritize sleep over everything else. Remember a good sleep can cure anything and everything
After all “ how will you dream if you don't sleep”?
