Sleeping with your phone in the other room

What if there’s an emergency? And what about my alarm? What if you don’t find out about the Oscar snubs before you rub the gunk out of your eyes? Look, I get it. 

There’s a lot of pros to sleeping with your phone next to your bed. It’s fun. You get to see memes (sometimes about an event that happened while you were asleep!). You can scroll the infinite scroll upon waking up, letting even the most vivid dream evaporate into the aether while reading work emails. The screen delays reality!  

And I know you don’t need another voice telling you that you spend too much time with your phone. Heck, I’ll roll the dice and say you probably already feel that way (and if I’m wrong, e-mail me and I’ll buy you a coffee). And if by the time you’re done scrolling before bed or after waking up, you think, “that was a good use of my time, it helped me become the version of me I want to be” … yeah, just ignore me. 

Charge your phone in another room at night. Give it a shot. Maybe just a few days a week. C’mon.

And, no, this practice hasn’t cured my mental illness, jump started my energy, or actualized my spiritual potential. But I’m less riled up by the news, less FOMO’d by peers, and less pressured to spend every waking moment engaged in productivity. And more importantly, I’m starting the day on my terms, not an algorithm’s terms.