How to stop using your phone before bed

Why it’s so hard to put the phone down at night

Night brings together the worst conditions: you’re tired, nobody interrupts you, and it finally feels like your time. The feed never ends and every clip is short enough that “just one more” sounds harmless. It isn’t a character flaw. It’s a design built to keep you going, up against someone who has run out of energy to decide anything.

The good news is that the change doesn’t have to be huge. In a pilot trial published in PLoS ONE in 2020, 38 people were split into two groups, and one was asked to avoid their phone for just 30 minutes before bed for four weeks. Compared with the group that carried on as usual, they fell asleep sooner, slept longer and reported better sleep. It’s a small study, so treat it as a hint rather than a promise, but it suggests half an hour already counts.

What seems to help less is staying on the phone with a warmer screen. A Brigham Young University study published in Sleep Health (167 adults aged 18 to 24) found that Night Shift didn’t improve sleep; among people averaging about seven hours, those who didn’t use their phone before bed reported the best sleep quality. The filter is fine, but it doesn’t replace putting the phone down.

Step 1: pick a cut-off time you can actually keep

Look at when you really go to bed on weeknights (not when you wish you did) and subtract 30 minutes. That’s your cut-off. If right now you scroll until the phone falls on your face, 30 minutes is already a big step; once it sticks, push it to 45 minutes or an hour.

• Keep it the same every day, or close. A fixed schedule becomes a habit faster than one you renegotiate every night.
• Decide what stays allowed. Calls, messages from family, your alarm, maybe a music or podcast app. Everything else gets covered.
• Leave weekends for later. If you stay up later on Fridays and Saturdays, start with a Sunday-to-Thursday schedule.

How to set a night schedule on iPhone

Your iPhone has two tools that work together: Screen Time, which covers the apps you choose from a set time, and the Sleep Focus, which silences notifications and simplifies the Lock Screen. If you want your phone to stop pulling you in at night, the first one matters most.

On iOS 27: a Screen Time Schedule

iOS 27 renamed things: what used to be Downtime is now a Screen Time Schedule, where you set time windows and which app categories stay available in each one.

1. Open Settings › Screen Time › Screen Time Schedule and turn on Schedule. Enter your Screen Time passcode if asked.
2. Tap Add Schedule, choose the days and save.
3. Tap Add Time Window, name it something like “Night”, and set it to start at your cut-off and end when you get up.
4. In that window, keep only the categories you really need and leave out Social and Entertainment.
5. If you also use Time Allowances, turn on Match Screen Time Schedule so each window follows its own allowances.

On iOS 26 or earlier: Downtime

1. Go to Settings › Screen Time › Downtime.
2. Turn on Scheduled, pick Every Day or customise the days, and set the start and end times.
3. If you have a Screen Time passcode, turn on Block at Downtime. Without it, the reminder goes away with one tap.
4. In Settings › Screen Time › Always Allowed, add whatever you need at night, such as Phone or Messages.

Sleep Focus for notifications

In the Health app, under Browse › Sleep, you can set your bedtime and wake-up time. With that schedule, your iPhone turns on the Sleep Focus, which silences notifications (except from the people and apps you allow) and pares the Lock Screen down to the basics. You can adjust it in Settings › Focus › Sleep and turn it on by hand from Control Center.

The Screen Time passcode is what turns a schedule into more than a reminder. If you make it up yourself you’ll know it, so ask someone you trust to type it in for you. If a menu doesn’t appear with the exact name, use the search bar at the top of Settings.

Bedtime mode on Android

On Android, the equivalent is Digital Wellbeing’s Bedtime mode: at the time you choose, it silences your phone and removes the screen’s colour, which is exactly what makes the feed lose its pull.

1. Open the Clock app, go to the Bedtime tab and tap the time under Bedtime to choose the time and days. Then set your wake-up time.
2. On the same screen, turn on Bedtime mode.
3. To fine-tune it, go to Settings › Digital Wellbeing & parental controls › Bedtime mode › Customize. There you can, for example, turn on Keep the screen dark.

Bedtime mode doesn’t block apps on its own. If you want TikTok or Instagram to close at a set time, add an app timer in Digital Wellbeing too. The exact name varies by brand; if you can’t find it, type “bedtime” into the Settings search bar.

Get the phone out of the bedroom (or at least out of your hand)

A schedule covers the apps, but the phone is still on the nightstand, one reach away. What changes nights the most is usually physical distance.

• Charge it somewhere else. The living room, the hallway, the kitchen. If the phone charges away from the bed, picking it up means getting up, and that small effort is enough on most nights.
• Get an old-school alarm clock. “I need it for the alarm” is the most common reason to sleep next to your phone. A cheap alarm clock removes it.
• Have the replacement ready. A book on the nightstand, a notebook for whatever is on your mind, a podcast on a speaker with a sleep timer. Taking something away without adding anything leaves a gap your thumb fills on its own.
• If you wake up at night, don’t grab it “to check the time”. A clock in the room saves you from lighting up the screen, and the notifications that come with it.

If you also want to cut down on scrolling during the day, there are concrete ideas in how to stop doomscrolling.