Who here would admit scrolling through and browsing social media platforms in their bed at night before they go to sleep? There are a lot of us, for sure.
While checking out your newsfeed while lying in bed seems relaxing, studies show that people who check social media 30 minutes before bedtime are 1.5 times more likely to have a night of disturbed sleep.
With these in mind, we need to stop surfing social media before bed. To know how we can do this, keep on reading!
How to Stop Using Social Media Before Bed
There are plenty of reasons why social media may have detrimental effects on your sleep. Here are some:
- It keeps our minds active and psychologically engaged.
- The blue light from your phone suppresses melatonin production, which helps put us to sleep.
- It may induce anxiety and depression, which will prevent you from falling asleep.
To address this, the National Sleep Foundation recommends that you stop using your electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Here are some tips on how to do that:
Make your social media apps less accessible.
The more steps you need to take to access the apps, the less likely you’ll use them.
If the first thing you see when you open your phone is your Facebook app, it won’t be easy to limit your social media use. Following the saying – out of sight, out of mind, it’s a good idea to hide those apps. You can do this by remove them from your home screen and transfer them into folders.
You can even go as far as deleting the apps from your phone. In this way, you have no choice but to use a laptop to check your social media accounts.
Make your bedroom a screen-free zone.
Try leaving your phone outside your bedroom. Since we use our phones to “relax” or set alarms and reminders, not having your phone beside you will make you feel anxious.
The good news is there are plenty of alternatives that you can try. Here are some of them:
- Read a book instead of reading disturbing and depressing news online.
- Set your wake up alerts using an alarm clock.
- Talk with your husband or roommate instead of chatting with other people.
- Meditate instead of browsing your newsfeed.
Turn off notifications from your social media apps.
If you want to sleep well, you should remove all possible distractions. The incoming calls from your Messenger app or the nonstop notifications from your Instagram will keep you awake.
Considering this, the first step in your bedtime routine should be to silence your apps.
Tips to Get Better Sleep
Aside from avoiding social media before bed, here are other tried-and-tested tips that can help you sleep better:
Invest in the right mattress.
Have you ever wondered why you sleep so well in hotels? That’s because they have the most comfortable beddings and mattresses.
Studies show that using the right mattress can help improve sleep quality by up to 111%. If you are thinking of investing in a new mattress, this twin mattress review from SleepStandards is a great resource to read.
Optimize your sleeping environment.
We already know that the environment can affect the quality of your sleep. For the most relaxing sleep, you should minimize the noise, light, and clutter inside your bedroom.
Temperature matters too. The ideal bedroom temperature is around 16-18°C. However, it would still be a matter of personal preference, so try testing out different temperatures to see which would be most comfortable.
Establish a bedtime routine and be consistent with it.
Sleeping is something that we can’t do on command, but there’s one thing that can prepare it for sleep—a bedtime routine. Since routines are predictable, doing them puts your body in a relaxed state, leading to better and faster sleep.
Here are some effective bedtime routines that you can try:
- Prepare your work clothes and write down your to-do’s for the next day.
- Take a long hot shower.
- Drink warm milk/ tea.
- Meditate or do yoga.
- Turn on your sound machine or listen to your pre-bedtime playlist.
- Turn off or dim the bedroom lights.
- Put your gadgets to sleep or silent mode.
Final Thoughts
We can’t deny that social media is a vital tool in connecting people and keeping us updated and informed. However, all the goodness it brings doesn’t erase the fact that it prevents us from getting a good night’s sleep.
The key here is to use social media in moderation. Avoid using social media 1 hour or 30 minutes before bed. Instead of browsing your news feed, try to do things that can help put you to sleep.
Make all these necessary changes in your pre-sleeping activities so you can sleep better and faster!
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