Why ditching your phone in the morning is good for your brain

Good morning,

There’s something I noticed when I’m on vacation. My phone ends up being closer to where I sleep, resulting in me immediately using my phone when I wake up. I’ve noticed some big differences in those mornings, and so I wanted to explore that topic a little more in depth.

Today we’ve got:

• 🌄 How phones change our brains in the morning

• ❌ How to build better morning phone habits

Let’s jump right into it.

— Geoff Sharpe, co-founder

The benefits of putting off using your phone in the morning

The alarm sounds. You lurch out of your dream. The first thing you do? Reach for your phone to turn off your alarm.

The second thing? Start scrolling. The mornings where I do this have a similar pattern. I lay around, checking the news, reading stressful emails, and filling my brain with emotions before I’ve even had the chance to wake up, and let my brain settle.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Studies have shown that 89% of Americans check their phones within the first 10 minutes of waking up in the morning. That little action sets us all up for a more difficult day.

Casually reaching for your phone after you wake up may feel great. Blame the dopamine for that (more on that shortly). But just like going to bed with your phone impacts your sleep and, subsequently, your next day, science shows how you start the morning will shape the rest of your day.

When you start your morning, your brain is in transition mode, cycling through different stages as your day begins.  First, your brain is in the delta phase, associated with deep sleep, followed by theta, a critical important phase because it’s a state of flexibility and malleability, inducing more creativity and problem-solving. This is followed by alpha where you’re physically alert. Finally, your brain transitions into what’s called beta waves, where we’re alert and ready for our day. This transition is key to having a productive day.

The problem is using your phone in the morning short circuits that process, pushing you straight into beta waves and priming yourself for more stress throughout the day. That period of high stress induces increased feelings of paranoia, worry, fear and other negative emotions. It’s why

Beyond short-circuiting your brain, the volume of notifications first thing in the morning will induce different psychological and emotional reactions. One expert noted that it frames our mornings around checking everything we missed on our phone, inducing feelings of fear of missing out, a bad way to begin the day. Stay away from your friends’ Instagram stories

By skipping that critical theta wave part of waking up, it hurts your ability to perform in life and at your job.

At the start of the day, your cognitive resources and willpower are fully replenished. Later in the day, it’s harder to have self-control, and you fall into autopilot, mindlessly scrolling. To put it simply, putting off scrolling on your phone first thing is your best opportunity to plan and, for many people, do hard work.

By starting out your morning with that big dopamine hit of social media or messages from friends, you’re also lowering your dopamine baseline level, causing you to chase that feeling more. That’s linked to depression, especially with big spikes and drops throughout the day. Good luck focusing on work!

I notice this acutely in my mornings. I sleep with my phone in the other room. But sometimes, when I wake up, I immediately check my notifications. A negative email, a colleague flagging something I did wrong, and I immediately spiral into a state of stress and fatigue. My ability to focus is compromised, as I linger on all the things I did wrong.

One U.K. psychologist summed up the problem well, where by looking at your phone immediately, you’re pulled into “agenda of others, consuming others’ requests, news and socials, which can make you reactive rather than creative.”

Mornings are the best opportunity to set up your work day for success for yourself, not focus on the problems of others. Set yourself up for success by putting off checking your phone in the morning, until you’ve gone through getting ready for the day. Your brain will thank you for it.

TIPS & TRICKS

Setting up your morning for success

There are so many stories out there about how to optimize your mornings for a successful day (I’m looking at you Andrew Huberman).

What I want to focus on today is less about meditation and drinking enough water, but more on a couple simple ways to optimize your morning without your phone.

Put the phone in another room

A simple thing you can do is increase friction between waking up and grabbing your phone. As Kian has mentioned in a previous story, don’t sleep with your phone next to you. That applies equally for the morning — the act of getting up at least gives your brain a bit of time to prepare for the day.

Build a morning habit to delay phone usage

Showering, reading, making breakfast, walking your dog, getting kids ready, there are so many things to do… All of this can be built into your morning routine. You don’t need to go as hard as many of those online hustle culture people demand, but having a couple things to accomplish each morning before checking your phone will help delay the hit to your brain.

Structure your weekends and work days differently

My weekends are very different than my work mornings. Without the demands of work forcing me to be productive, I’m more susceptible to the desire to be on my phone. Instead, I’ve built a habit of reading in the morning and preparing a bigger breakfast meal, you get the idea. Building different habits on days you have off, especially around things that bring you joy, can keep that phone away from you just a little longer.

RESOURCE & RECOMMENDATIONS

• I think one of the best things you can do is build some morning routines that keep you busy and focused instead of your phone. This site has built out a list of different morning routines, though some certainly may go a little overboard…

• I find many self-help books can be overhyped. But I found Atomic Habits a useful analysis of how you can build effective habits, especially in the morning.

• This story dives more deeply into brain states and brain waves, for those interested in exploring the topic more.

• Is having one device for everything we do actually better? This person shared their short story on moving towards multiple devices (music player, camera, Kindle) rather than just using their phone.

• One person explained the impact of an experiment of ditching their phone in the morning. The result? Their creativity soared.

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