Technology brings an abundance of benefits into our lives. But with more tech comes more time staring at a screen. Excessive screen time can affect your mental and physical health.
Blurred vision often happens with excessive screen time. This can lead to dry eyes and headaches. Another long term negative effect of screen time is poor sleep. Blue lights emitted from screens keep our brains awake, and cause irregular sleeping patterns which can affect your mood and work. There are a handful of other affects such as poor relationships, isolation, laziness, and poor self confidence. Technology has so many incredible benefits, but there is such a thing as too much usage!
We’ve compiled the top five ways to cut back on screen time that are easy and little changes you can make today.
1. During your meals, put down the screens!
Most of us are guilty of pulling out our phones when sitting down for a meal. Eating with others is one way to distract yourself from your phone, but another is reading or truly just focusing on your yummy food! This is a time where you are nourishing your body, so it’s a good idea to take a step back from the screen!
2. Leave Your Phone Outside the Bedroom!
While many of us use phones for alarms, there’s a huge danger in that. It’s far too easy to grab your phone from your nightstand when you can’t sleep and next thing you know, its 2am and you’ve been staring at Facebook for three hours. Your sleep is pivotal to your mental and physical health, so your screen time being cut here will produce incredible benefits.
3. Meet Face to Face!
While phones are so convenient to text and chat and email, sometimes we need a good old fashioned face-to-face meeting. During these times you meet face to face, turn your phone over. This benefit your relationship and your health .
4. Get active!
It’s easy to use your phone as a distraction from boredom, but instead get outside and use it as a time to disconnect. You will sleep better and improve your health by working up a sweat and taking a step away from technology.
5. Spend Your Time Wisely!
Unless there is an emergency, leave your work at work. Don’t stay up answering emails and staring at your work. Another good practice is putting a bedtime to social media. Turn on do not disturb a few hours before bed. This will allow you to spend quality time with your family, improve sleep, and boost your mental health.
There you have it! 5 simple ways to help reduce your screen time. Try some of these out soon and you’ll see an improvement in how you feel almost instantly!