As soon as many of us wake up, our first instinct is to reach for our cellphones. We spend time scrolling through social media and responding to messages from the previous night. However, if you want to maintain optimal brain health, this habit should be reconsidered.
According to a survey by Reviews.org, more than 88% of Americans say they check their phones within the first 10 minutes after waking up. But what exactly are people doing on their phones so early in the morning? The activities include browsing social networks, replying to messages from friends, and catching up on the news. The question then arises: what impact does this habit have on our health?
American neuroscientist Emily McDonald, with a large following of 400,000 subscribers on TikTok, regularly shares advice on taking care of our brains daily. This includes discouraging bad habits, such as checking your smartphone in the morning.
In a video that has been viewed over 15 million times, McDonald explains in a segment titled “Three things I avoid to protect my brain,” that “Whenever you wake up in the morning your brainwaves transition from theta to alpha. This means that our subconscious mind is in a more programmable state. The content that you consume during this time will have a greater impact on your mindset. And messes up our dopamine for the rest of the day so that we continue to check our phones.”
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter hormone that is released in our brains as a type of reward center, providing a sense of pleasure.
Checking social networks first thing in the morning can negatively affect our attention span throughout the day. McDonald advises turning off notifications, stating that “Notifications are designed to trigger your brain into a stimulus response behavior so that when the notification lights up your screen you click it and go to social media without a second thought.”
She also encourages us to “limit scrolling” through news and feeds on our phones. She references a study suggesting that heavy scrolling was associated with psychological distress, which could lead to decreased life satisfaction and mental well-being.
With screens being a significant part of our daily lives, their frequent use may be indirectly impacting our cognitive abilities. According to a 2020 Samsung study, our attention spans have decreased from 12 to eight seconds since 2000, at least when listening to music.
In addition, a study by Texas Tech University found that doomscrolling through news was linked to anxiety and depression. To counteract this, it is advisable to avoid using your smartphone as soon as you wake up.
McDonald suggests turning off notifications at night to resist the temptation to check them. Instead, she recommends focusing on yourself with positive affirmations and light physical exercise as a bedtime routine. – AFP Relaxnews
