The use of screens is all around. We work on the laptop, we answer messages on our phone, we watch shows, and we scroll a lot during free time. It’s not just the screen. It’s the ease with which screen time can take the place of sleep, movement, conversation, and rest.
Your Eyes Notice It Too!
Your eyes may be dry, tired, or a bit cloudy after working for long hours at a computer. It’s common to also get headaches and difficulty focusing, particularly if you are looking at something up close for a long time.
There are a number of simple practices that can help:
- Look away from the screen every so often.
- Increase eye blinking if your eyes feel dry.
- Maintain an appropriate viewing distance.
- Minimize glare and brightness.
These little things can help make hours of screen time easier on the eyes.
Screen Time Can Quietly Replace Movement
There’s another issue, which is not so much with the screen and more with sitting around the screen. We can spend hours in the same place during a workday or at night while watching TV.
Exercise is beneficial to sleep, heart health, mood, and overall health.
Add some movement, in simple ways:
- Get up when receiving a call.
- Keep moving around from one task to the next for a few minutes.
- Stretch between episodes of a TV show.
- Avoid having water at your desk, as you’ll need to stand up to drink it.
- Use some of your lunch break outside.
All of these do not require a gym membership, and they’re easy to follow. The idea is just to interrupt extended sitting times.
Screens and Sleep Are a Difficult Combination
Phones are particularly effective at taking up the end of the day. You are about to read one message and suddenly half an hour has passed.
The studies on bedtime screen use and its sleep impacts are mixed in adults and consistent in children and teens. Even stimulating information and bright artificial lights can make it more difficult to unwind, so the CDC suggests that people put away electronics at least 30 minutes before going to sleep.
Keeping the cell phone away from the bedroom may help. The lights can also be dimmed, and the remainder of the evening spent reading, stretching, or listening to music.
Why Cutting Back Feels Hard
A lot of screen use happens without a conscious decision. We check notifications during a conversation or reach for the phone when we get bored. Whether it is social media, streaming, a news feed, or PlayBaze, digital entertainment is always close at hand.
That is why reducing screen time often works better when you change your environment instead of relying only on willpower.
Try:
- Turning off nonessential notifications.
- Removing distracting apps from the home screen.
- Setting app limits for services you overuse.
- Keeping phones away from meals.
- Creating screen-free parts of the day.
- Choosing one offline activity you enjoy.
These small barriers make it less likely that you will open an app automatically every time you have a free minute.
Less Screen Time, Not Zero Screen Time!
It is important to realize that for most people it is impossible to avoid screens completely. We use them for work, communication, study, and play.
It’s better to be aware when screen time is beginning to impact sleep, movement, relationships, or concentration.
There’s no need for a big digital fast. Simple boundaries, periodic check-ins, and more intentional use of technology can help technology stay in its place.
The aim is not to avoid screens, but to use them without them taking the place of behaviours which support a sense of wellbeing.