How to stop tech affecting your health

The evidence is in. The more you use social media, the more depressed you are likely to be. Plus, the research into screen time shows that looking at your phone at night can disrupt your body’s natural sleep signals. The result is less sleep, higher incidence of poor mental health and lower concentration levels.

So how could you tackle this pervasive problem?

Here are some tips to reduce your screen time and retrieve your happiness.

1. No phone use after dinner

We know it sounds difficult, but we all need safe boundaries in life. Your body needs to know it is night-time to wind your mind down ready for sleep. If you have ever tried to sleep with a whirring mind, you know why this is important. At night, to stream video content, use your television (Chromecast and Apple TV are popular solutions for this), at least this way you will be sitting farther away from the light.

2. Set your work alarms on repeat

Using your phone before bed to set your alarm is worth avoiding. Otherwise you will suffer from a hit of disruptive blue light. Set your phone alarm to a routine weekly alarm and have it on repeat so that you never have to think about it again. Another option is to use a traditional bedside alarm clock.

3. Charge your phone away from your bed

If your phone is not at reach at night, you will be less likely to grab for it. This one relates to alarms too. When you have been inconvenienced enough to get out of bed to turn off your alarm you will be on your feet and less likely to begin the day online.

4. Manage your notification settings

The default settings on most social media platforms can be intrusive. A notification should be something important, otherwise, it is best to be left alone.

Actions:

• only accept notifications from people
• turn off notifications to your email (or set up a new email address to link your social media accounts to and never check it)
• turn off notifications to group chat groups, you can check those at your leisure

5. Use voice messages

For most of us, typing is slow. Speaking is quick. Not only is this a time-saver, it means you do not have to look at your phone, you can just speak in to it. Give it a go.

6. Go black and white

Most late model phones have a grayscale setting to change the image display to back and white. Colours are stimuli to the brain, so getting rid of them could help bring further calm to your brain and help reduce your technology addiction. Grayscale on most iPhones is in Settings → Accessibility → Vision → Grayscale or Colour Filters. For recent Android phones, select Digital Wellbeing → Wind Down → Greyscale.