Is Technology Keeping You from Sleep?

You probably already suspect it. Maybe you know it without a doubt. Technology could be keeping you from sleeping well. We hear this all the time in the media. We know it’s not in our best interest to stream shows, surf the internet, check email, or scroll through social media before bed. Or worse yet, while lying in bed, expecting to roll over and fall right asleep.

To put it like a sleep scientist would, it is not good sleep hygiene.

It’s true. If you do those things, you may be hindering your ability to easily fall asleep and get a good night’s rest. But there’s something more that may be completely sabotaging you when you’re already asleep. And it’s completely – or almost completely – within your control.

My phone keeps waking me up!

It’s particularly annoying when a harmless-looking little machine like your phone or tablet keeps lighting up, buzzing or even giving you whatever little “splink” noise you’ve chosen to alert you to every little not-so-important thing.

It’s even more disturbing when that happens at night while you are supposed to be sleeping. And the jackpot of maddening is when it’s not just your device – or heaven forbid, devices – but your partner’s too.

All night. Every night.

When did we decide that we would fall irreparably behind if we didn’t get notified in real time of…well…everything?

When you absolutely, positively have to be notified

Granted, there are some things you ALWAYS want to get through. Everybody wants to know immediately when something happens to a loved one, or something is putting you or those you care about in danger.

You certainly wouldn’t want to wait until morning to see a text from your teenager that they need you to come pick them up somewhere. Or to get a call that a family member is being rushed to the hospital. Or that your best friend has gone into labor and wants you there with her.

If there’s someone trying to steal your car out of your driveway, you want to know while it’s happening, not six hours later when you head out to go to work.

You want to know right now if there’s a wildfire or extreme weather headed your way.

Things like these need to get through to you, without question. But if you’re lucky, they will be few and far between.

Don’t wake up for the small stuff

What you don’t need to know at 2:00 am is that your cell phone bill’s automatic payment has gone through. Or that your grocery store has new digital coupons available. Or that your Wi-Fi has gone down and your security system is on data backup. And that it has come back online 15 minutes later. Yep, personal experience speaking.

You don’t need to know that someone liked or followed or connected or re-tweeted you. Not right now.

That LOL or emoji in response to a message you sent several hours ago to someone who doesn’t get time zone differences? Yeah…no.

Work emails, texts, Slack messages from your insomniac boss or colleagues? Nope. Unless something is an emergency or extremely time-sensitive, it’ll wait until morning.

These may seem like tiny little intrusions in your night of slumber, but it can truly affect the amount and quality of solid sleep you’re getting, night after night. Short awakenings of even the few seconds it takes for you to check to see what it’s all about are detrimental to the solid, restorative sleep you need to function at your best.

Some interruptions are more disturbing than just a few seconds and can really disrupt your sleep. Scam calls, as common and infuriating as they are during the day, fortunately are rare at night, but scammers who are out of the country and immune to our laws seem to be getting more aggressive by calling or texting during the night when your defenses are down.

Local emergency messages are loud and alarming – by design. And while you definitely want to know if there is a heavy duty storm coming your way, you don’t need to know about the one 30 miles away and headed in the other direction. Likewise Amber and Silver (elder) Alerts can help authorities find those missing or abducted, but honestly, you’re not going to help with that while you’re sleeping. Morning is soon enough to hear about that.

You are in control of who gets through to you – and when

It may feel strange, but you are entitled to set boundaries when it comes to your time.

If your family or friends keep different hours than you do or seem oblivious to your need to restrict your availability when you’re sleeping, have a quick talk and let them know you really need your rest.

As far as work goes, unless you’re a doctor or have another position where you’re on call or must be available outside of regular work hours, your job shouldn’t expect you to answer when you’re off duty. Make sure it’s clearly understood that you won’t be responding after you clock out. Or if that’s too difficult, just don’t respond until you clock back in.

Put your phone on silent or do not disturb during your sleeping hours, or whenever you don’t want to be interrupted. You can always set certain people to always be able to get through to you if necessary.

Let your friends and family know you put your phone on silent at night, so they won’t expect you to be available for just anything during those times. Even people you set to get through may get the message not to call or text at night if you tell them you’ll be turning your phone to silent.

You may be loathe to turn your ringer and text alerts completely off at night, fearing you might miss an emergency. Have no fear. You can still control many of the other interruptions that happen at all hours.

You are also in control of what gets your attention

Devices love to ping and buzz and chirp all the time. Thankfully, they are sophisticated these days and allow you to customize what gets your attention and how.

First, set all your apps so they notify you the way you prefer to be notified.

That includes your email, messaging, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Slack and any other communication apps. Social media apps too.

You can set your phone’s emergency alerts to the level of severity and type you want to receive and turn all the other types off.

If you want to know when your credit card payment posts, or if your favorite store is having a sale, or when a new season of your favorite streaming show drops but you don’t want to know it in the middle of the night, set those to just do a silent visual notification. If that comes in at night, you’ll see it in the morning.

Don’t forget to do this when you download a new app too. I can’t tell you how many times I forget this and before I know it, I’ve gotten some bell or whoosh sound telling me all about it. At 5 o’clock in the morning.

Another option at night is to put your device on airplane mode, which suspends Wi-Fi and other signals. No calls. No messages. No alerts from apps.

Just peace and quiet.