I was good at it.
Every evening was the same ritual. To bed, phone, scrolling. Just checking whether there was anything to see on Instagram. Another YouTube video. Answering a message. Checking this, checking that...
Before I knew it, it was 01:15. I wasn't even doing anything that interested me anymore. Just... scrolling more and more for dopamine. As if my thumb had a mind of its own.
And then the phone away and trying to sleep. And there you are, staring at the ceiling. "Why can't I sleep? It's already after 01:00?!?"
I thought I was just a bad sleeper. That it came with the territory. That some people simply need longer to wind down.
But that wasn't right. There was something I did every evening that literally made my body think the day was still going on.
What happens in your brain when you scroll
Your body has one hormone that determines whether you get sleepy: melatonin. This hormone is produced by the pineal gland in your brain and normally starts to rise as soon as it gets dark outside.
Dark is the key word.
Your eyes contain special cells (melanopsin cells) that are extremely sensitive to blue light. Blue light is the dominant type of light in sunlight during the day. The signal these cells pass on to your brain is simple: it is daytime. Stop producing melatonin.
Your phone, your laptop, your TV: they all emit blue light. Not as strong as the sun, but strong enough to confuse your pineal gland. Especially when you're looking at it up close, in a dark room, twenty centimeters from your face.
What does your brain register while you scroll? Daytime --> not time to get sleepy yet.
Research shows that evening exposure to blue light can delay melatonin production by one to three hours. In practical terms: your body is only ready to sleep when you're already lying awake in bed.
But blue light is only half the story
This was the real eye-opener for me.
Your brain isn't only sensitive to light. It's also sensitive to stimuli.
Every time you scroll, your brain reacts. A funny video, an annoying message, a notification that hits you. It doesn't matter what it is. Your amygdala, the part of your brain that processes emotions, becomes active. Your prefrontal cortex, the part that thinks and judges, goes into overdrive.
You're in a state of low but constant alertness. Exactly the opposite of what you need to fall asleep.
Sleep calls for a calm transition. Your heart rate needs to drop. Your body temperature needs to fall. Your nervous system needs to shift from active to relaxed. That process is called parasympathetic activation and it takes time. Twenty minutes at least, often longer.
Every notification, every scroll, every video resets the clock.
Your body is trying to land. You're still keeping the plane in the air.
What I changed
I didn't stop using my phone entirely at night right away.
What did work: a hard cutoff at 21:30. Phone away, screens off. Not in a drawer, but in another room. Out of sight and out of my head.
The first week felt uncomfortable. I didn't know what to do with that time. That feeling alone told me enough.
After two weeks, I was sleeping better than I had in years.
This week's habit
Pick a time. One hour before you go to bed, no more screens. No phone, no laptop, no TV.
Put your phone physically outside your bedroom. Not on silent, not face down on the table. Just outside the door.
One week. Seven evenings. See what happens.
Every Night 1% Better.
Guy Veeke
PS. A big part of lying awake also has to do with how you breathe. Anyone who breathes through their mouth at night keeps their nervous system unconsciously active. Nasal breathing gets your body into the resting state it needs more quickly so it can truly switch off. Our nasal strips help keep your nose open so you can make that switch more easily: https://snoozeless.nl/products/neusstrips
