Some common habits people have with their mobile phones could be increasing their stress levels, a doctor has claimed.
Today, mobile phones are an integral part of many people’s lives – from keeping in contact with others, through to social media and keeping up with news and events and playing games. But by being so connected, often throughout the day and especially at nighttime, it can negatively affect our mental health.
Dr Aditi Nerurkar has outlined three common habits that can negatively contribute to stress levels. Speaking on entrepreneur Steven Bartlett’s Dairy of a CEO podcast, Dr Nerurkar advocated giving up these habits to reduce stress.
While she advocates turning the brightness on the phone down, there are other habits that should also be cut down.
The first is to cut down on late-night scrolling. Dr Nerurkar says that we should leave our phones alone – especially when in bed – because it can make it difficult to disengage and get the sort of good night’s sleep that is recommended.
She says doing something else before bed that can help you to relax – rather than scrolling through news sites or social media such as X, which can do the opposite, especially if you view bad news or controversial content – is more conducive to going to sleep.
Allied to that is cutting down on viewing traumatic content. News and social media sites often share videos or images with distressing content, such as from war zones, natural disasters or even arguments in the street captured on mobile phones. Watching these can add to emotional stress and lead to indirect trauma, as they leave viewers feeling stressed. The images can trigger the body’s fight or flight response and increase stress, even if they don’t directly involve you.
Finally – and perhaps inevitably – Dr Nerurkar advocates cutting down on how much we use our phones. She said that on average people check their phones 2,600 times a day, with half of us checking in during the middle of the night. She recommended limiting phone usage to 20 minutes per day and setting timers if needs to then stop and disengage.
