By Quincy Bohne
What do you do before going to bed? Do you take a shower? Eat a snack? Maybe read a good book? Or do you scroll through your social media? Whatever you choose to do late in your evening actually has a huge impact on your sleep and can help determine the mood you will be in tomorrow. So what can you do to have your best possible day the next day?
For many people, screens have integrated into their nighttime routine. Maybe it is just watching one more episode of that show you’ve been binge watching, or scrolling through TikTok late at night. Those things can be okay, but research suggests that the usage of screens late at night can result in a loss of sleep. A study conducted in March 2025 published in Frontiers In Psychiatry inspected University students in Norway. They found that every extra hour that the young adults spent on their devices caused a 24 minute deficit of their sleep.
One reason that screens interfere with sleep is the blue light that they emit. Cell phones, computers, tablets and televisions all radiate blue light from their screens. According to the National Sleep Foundation, “blue light has shorter wavelengths than other colors in the visible light spectrum and causes more alertness than warmer light tones. Because blue light promotes wakefulness, it can have a powerful effect on the natural sleep-wake cycle, which is one of the natural circadian rhythms governing our body processes.”
When your brain is exposed to blue light late at night, it can be hard for your brain to shift to a relaxed state before bed. This can create a problem because you don’t believe you are tired since you’ve been on your phone for a long time, which in turn causes you to get less sleep. So how can you get your sleep back?
You can create a consistent night routine to combat this problem. You can start off by not using your devices at least an hour before you go to bed. You could try moving your phone into a different room so you aren’t tempted to hop on it when bored at night. If you use an alarm on your phone to wake up in the morning, try using a real alarm clock instead. Create a consistent routine and stick with the routine.
You don’t have to completely get rid of your phone at nighttime. But sometimes getting a better night’s sleep means putting that screen away.
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