No Phones in the Bedroom

One thing I've been monitoring is my cell phone screen time. I've been doing pretty good lately, hovering around one hour a day. One thing I've been trying is to keep my phone in another room than whichever room I'm in. That goes along with me keeping the phone out of the bedroom at night.

For over a year now, I've replaced my phone as my alarm clock with a simple bedside table alarm clock. Its display is red so it doesn't interfere with my night vision, and there's no alerts to interrupt my sleep, other than the morning alarm. As someone who would sometimes idly play on my phone when waking up instead of getting out of bed, the only thing I have to battle now is the urge to keep hitting the snooze button.

Around 8:30pm, I start reading before bed. I'll put my phone and watch on their chargers in my office and head out to the couch with my book. I might take a quick glance as I get up to brush my teeth, but that's pretty much the end of my phone usage for the day.

I do make one exception. When my wife is out of town or out after I go to bed, I will have my phone sitting on the middle shelf of my bedside table charging. God forbid an emergency arise, I would want her to be able to get a hold of me. I have the sleep rules allow her number, but it will definitely be louder and more prone to waking me up next to me rather than in the neighboring room.

The only other thing I'm not sure how to handle would be family emergencies. It might seem morbid, but all of us on this planet are getting older every day. My parents and other members of my family are no exception. I'll have to cross that bridge at some point but it would probably go similarly to the exception I make for my wife.

There have been studies that have shown that keeping your phone out of the bedroom at night is beneficial. As someone who values my sleep more and more as I get older, any little bit of assistance to help my sleep habits will be beneficial. It also helps that it continues my push for less idle screen time.