In our home the bedroom has two functions. One is sleep – the other I’ll leave to your imagination. We recently put blackout shutters on our bedroom windows. When they make snore shutters I’ll be installing them too. But for now, I’m sleeping better than ever – not that I ever had an issue with sleeping. Tom’s always been stunned by how quickly I can go from fast to off. I’m often asleep before my head fully settles into the pillow. I joke with him that it’s simply a matter of “good living and a clean conscience.”
But there’s a whole population of smartphone abusers who are depriving themselves of some very important REM cycles. More and more of us are using our smartphones as watches and alarm clocks, keeping them plugged in overnight while they recharge on the bedside table, just as we ourselves are supposed to be recharging.
This is craziness. So long as your phone is plugged in, so are you. Take a break from your phone. If your phone is in your bedroom you’ll get those late night calls, tweets and texts that interfere with precious sleep. Even if it’s on vibrate, it’s still rattling away on the nightstand on some subsonic or subliminal level. And the easier you can reach your phone, the more likely it becomes that you’ll check your texts or email in the middle of the night and find something that will really disturb your sleep. How can you get the REM cycles your body requires if you’re still connected? You can’t.
Buy yourself an alarm clock or clock radio that allows you a gentle reentry into the world each morning. Unless there’s a likelihood of an emergency, never have your smartphone in the bedroom. Attorneys’ shouldn’t be calling you in the middle of the night, and if someone dies overnight, they’ll be just as dead in the morning and you’ll be rested and ready to deal with it.
I’m Just Sayin’
P.S. If you haven’t figured out the second function of a bedroom you really need to get that smartphone out of there.
P.P.S.Comment here and share your tips for uninterrupted sleep.
Newer cell phones have a ‘do not disturb’ function. This allows the phone to be used as an alarm clock but not vibrate or ring on any other notifications. On some phones this is called Blocking Mode. These features have a start and stop time and even have the ability to allow certain contacts to call or send messages even if the Blocking Mode is on.
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Great Advice.
Newer cell phones have a ‘do not disturb’ function. This allows the phone to be used as an alarm clock but not vibrate or ring on any other notifications. On some phones this is called Blocking Mode. These features have a start and stop time and even have the ability to allow certain contacts to call or send messages even if the Blocking Mode is on.