Brain - Our Phones Don’t Belong in the Bedroom

Sometimes I feel foolish continuing to dip back into the well of content and actions that are screen-time adjacent. It comes from a place of honesty and relatability though - regardless of the discipline I feel like I have in other areas of my life, the battle with an increasing pull from that little cellular device is one I continue to fight - even equipped with all the right knowledge. Which is why I want to recommend a small step I am taking to continue chipping away at the stone - Removing your phone from the bedroom.

In a world where our phones serve as alarm clocks, entertainment hubs, and last-minute email check-ins, it’s easy to justify keeping them by our bedside. But what if one simple change—removing your phone from the bedroom—could significantly improve your sleep quality, mental health, and focus? Science from a few podcasts and books I have listened to back this up, and the results are too glaring to omit. Hear me out:

1. Blue Light Disrupts Your Sleep Cycle

   1. Phones emit blue light, which suppresses melatonin, the hormone that signals to your brain that it’s time to sleep. Research from Harvard Medical School has shown that exposure to blue light before bed delays sleep onset, reduces REM sleep, and decreases overall sleep quality. Poor sleep is directly linked to increased anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline.

2. The Dopamine Trap

   1. Endless scrolling keeps your brain wired. When you check your phone before bed, you're triggering dopamine, the same brain chemical associated with addiction. Social media, emails, and even the news create micro-doses of excitement or stress, keeping your brain in a hyperactive state. Instead of winding down, your mind is primed for engagement, not rest.

3. Phones in the Bedroom Increase Stress and Anxiety

   1. A study from the University of Gothenburg found that high phone use before bed correlates with increased stress levels and sleep disturbances. Even having your phone within reach increases psychological arousal, making you more likely to wake up during the night and check notifications. The result? Fragmented sleep, lower focus, and higher cortisol levels (the stress hormone) in the morning.

4. Mornings Without a Phone Lead to Better Mental Clarity

   1. The first thing you do in the morning sets the tone for your entire day. Studies show that checking your phone immediately after waking up increases stress and decision fatigue. Instead of starting the day with intention, your mind is thrown into reactive mode—scrolling, checking emails, and consuming content before you even get out of bed.

These are personal anecdotes from myself as much as they are takeaways from podcasts and books. I know how much quicker I can get my brain to shut down when I am not aimlessly scrolling, and instead reading a book. I know how much more capable I am of managing my stress levels when the first thing I do in the morning is make a cup of coffee and read instead of main-lining social media and emails into my veins.

Which begs the question - why do we do it? I have come to accept this: Completely distancing from your phone (Deleting the apps - locking time - etc.) is not a permanent strategy. Rather we need to focus on micro-actions that, when acted upon over time, can have an impact on the way we view our relationships with the device in the first place.

If the importance and need of scrolling through my social feed before bed diminishes in importance as I go weeks without having the temptation beside me, maybe I can then begin to diminish the pull it has during other areas of the day. At a minimum, it frees time to either get to bed earlier, read more, or have more meaningful conversations with my spouse. Wins all around.

Will you take the challenge?

Body - The Run/Walk Strategy (Leave Your Ego at the Door)

If you have any aspirations at all to get into running, or to even dip your toes in the water to see if you would like it, I have something I want you to try.

A quick disclaimer - this seems like a fairly mundane, “duh” approach to improving your endurance, yet it’s often met with a lot of resistance. My belief, part own-experience, is that this resistance is an internal result of not being able to humble yourself enough to admit that this is where you need to start to begin. “How am I going to run a half marathon if I can’t even run a mile (or 3) straight? Surely I can just push through this.”

Once you get over your own pride, I promise that putting this strategy into practice will lay a foundation that you can consistently build upon to begin an actual training block toward running a race or increasing your weekly mileage as a hobby in general.

The strategy is simple - Run…Walk…

Many people fear running because of the exhaustion and pain it has caused in their previous attempts. Your heartrate redlines, your joints ache, and you don’t recover well.

Others have tried to build up a running habit only to experience a quick injury or the inability to run multiple days in a row / week because of the soreness.

Incorporating a run/walk strategy can help eliminate this all. The foundation of improving your endurance is spending increasing amounts of time on your feet, while simultaneously controlling your heart rate (limiting the time you are spending in those upper end zones - high effort paces).

A couple of ways to implement this, based on your fitness level:

• The 1:1 Ratio:

  • Run for a minute, walk for a minute. Run for 2 minutes, walk for 2 minutes. Run for 5 minutes, walk for 5 minutes. Build up your endurance to a point where you can go further during the running section, and give yourself time to recover (yet remain on foot) during the walk.

• Heart-Rate Guided:

  • If you have a watch or way to measure your heart rate, simply set a block of time you wish to run for, and run/walk based on your HR. For example, my zone 2 running is between 140-148 BPM. If I were to do a run/walk stretch, I would run at a pace until my heart rate jumped over 148, then I would walk until that settled back down into the 120s or so, and run again, until the HR dictated it was time again to walk.

• The “Walk” Jog:

  • Don’t be afraid to simply work in periods during your runs where you are still “running” but the effort doesn’t feel much higher than a walk. If you are trying to build to run a 5K, go out and run a half mile at a 9.5-minute pace, then run a quarter mile at a 13-minute pace, etc.

The whole idea here is that if you are serious about improving at running, you need to leave your ego at the door. The ONLY goals at the beginning are to get used to being on our feet for longer periods of time, increase our ability to control and monitor our heart rate, improve our form, and increase the likelihood we can recover to do it again tomorrow. Try the run/walk for yourself this week to get started.

Book - “Iron Hope” by James Lawrence

James Lawrence, the Iron Cowboy, is an elite endurance athlete known for pushing human limits. In 2015, he completed the 50-50-50 Challenge—50 Ironman triathlons in 50 days across all 50 states. Post that experience he wrote a book that I have read multiple times - Redefine Impossible. He also has a documentary “Iron Cowboy” about the feat that is a must-watch for stretching your imagination on what you can achieve.

In 2021, he shattered expectations again with the Conquer 100, finishing 100 Ironmans in 100 consecutive days. His story is a testament to resilience, proving “You’re capable of more than you think.”

I am going to begin reading his new book, “Iron Hope” this week, with one sole objective - get re-inspired to stretch my endurance aspirations.

I will share quotes and some of my favorite ideas in the newsletter as usual. I don’t anticipate reading anything revolutionary that hasn’t been shared in some other form before. What I do anticipate though is feeling the inner itch to challenge myself to take whatever my current goals are, and extend those to something more challenging.

If someone can run 100 Iron Mans in 100 days - what are we capable of ourselves? This is a read I anticipate being empowering to all, even if finishing a 5K seems like a stretch goal in your current state. Read along with me -