Creating a DIGI CURFEW

Get a better night's sleep by ditching devices

- DR KRISTY GOODWIN AND MADISON BOGISCH

Scrolling Instagram or checking emails before bed is a seemingly harmless act most of us do, but what if we told you it wasn’t all that innocuous?

Our screen habits are among the chief culprits sabotaging our sleep, with the quick dopamine hits that we get by using devices making them hard to put down. This can be coupled with the belief that if we’ve had a busy day (and who hasn’t?), the winding down period before sleep is an ideal time to catch up on missed screen time.

“This is why so many people succumb to ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’: making the decision to delay sleeping at night and engage in monotonous socials scrolling or online shopping,” says digital wellbeing and productivity expert Dr Kristy Goodwin. “[This is] often because of a perceived lack of free time earlier in the day.”

Dr Goodwin’s solution? Creating a cut-off time for your daily device usage – also known as a digital curfew. Here are her top tips to create one and stick to it.

1. REMEMBER REMINDERS