If you’re anything like me or the typical college student, you spend more time than you’d prefer to admit scrolling on your phone in bed instead of going to sleep. Despite all the limits I tried for myself, like setting a screen time passcode and using Do Not Disturb, I recently concluded that the best way to end the shame spiral is by taking matters out of my own hands completely. Here is that hack, as well as three others that might help you to do the same.
- keep hitting one more minute? let your friend set your screentime passcode
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Despite inputting a screen time limit for myself, I quickly realized I would continue to hit “fifteen more minutes” until my eyes started closing by themselves. So the other day, I asked my roommate for an unusual favor- to create a new passcode for me. Four days a week, excluding the notes app or weather, it’s now impossible to use my phone after 12. Unless I’m desperate enough to plead with my roommate in the middle of the night. Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that.
- get old-fashioned with an alarm clock
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Ok, maybe an alarm clock doesn’t qualify as ‘old-fashioned.’ But I was surprised by the results I got from such an obvious solution- removing my phone from the equation entirely. When you have to go downstairs to use your phone, it becomes a lot easier to give up and go to sleep.
- Treat yourself like a child
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I suppose this is basically the article’s theme- treating yourself like a child sneaking their iPad- but it’s not an unhelpful mentality. When you were a kid and couldn’t sleep, did you scroll on your phone? I guess maybe you did, depending on how old you are now. But when I was a kid, I did activities like reading, digging through old books, or playing with stickers. It’s time to go back to your roots.