Make Screen-Free Time a Habit: Sleep Better, Focus More & Think Clearer
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Screen-free time stops you and your kids from becoming dopamine addicted zombies.

When you turn off the tech, you turn on real human connection, power up your focus and supercharge your creativity. It also reduces stress and encourages healthy brain development for your children.

Many remarkable people have a screen-free routine:

Best Tools To Guarantee Screen-Free Time

Why Screen-Free Time Matters

5 Core Benefits

Connect With Real People

• Strengthen your relationships with undistracted face-to-face communication.
• Build trust and greater connections by doing fun things together.
• Reduce negative effects of social media like feelings of not being good enough.

Avoid Digital Overload

• Lowers your stress levels because you aren’t being bombarded with emails, alerts and calls.
• Protects you from the mental fatigue cause by constant multitasking.
• Frees your mind to wonder and daydream.

Embrace “Boredom”

• Train your brain to creatively explore new ideas and never be bored again.
• Spend time alone and do self-reflection and thinking exercises.
• Find new hobbies to enjoy.

Improve Your Focus

• Boost your attention span by reducing your scroll time.
• Boost your productivity without constant distraction.
• Retrain your brain to focus on one thing at a time.

Sleep Better

• Decreases exposure to blue light that disrupts your natural sleep cycle.
• Gives you a relaxing evening routine free of screens.
• Frees up time to read or meditate before bed.

Types of Screen-Free Time

Here’s the recent data on screen-time of Americans aged 18 and over:

• Television: 4 hours and 37 minutes per day.
• Smartphones: 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on apps and web browsing.
• Computers: 59 minutes per day, combining internet and video usage.
• Tablets: 37 minutes per day on apps and web browsing.

When you look at teenagers the number goes up drastically for smartphones and down for the rest. Some teens are spending up to 9 hours per day on their smartphones.

What to do:

Phone-Free Time

Smartphones have become the main source of screen-time for under 18s.

How to combat excessive smartphone use:

• Set specific no-phone-hours each day like during meals, exercising, doing homework and before bed.
• Take advantage of airplane mode and/or a phone lockbox to create more screen-free time.
• Replace scrolling with journaling, reading or meditating.

Computer-Free Time

PCs, laptops and Macs are heavily used by all ages for work, media and entertainment.

How to get away from your computer:

• Schedule regular breaks to walk, stretch or shoot some hoop in your backyard.
• Get into screen-free hobbies like cooking, drawing or gardening.
• Go back to using a pen and paper for writing down your ideas and notes.

TV-Free Time

TVs are by far the biggest source of screen-time for Americans over 50.

How to change this:

• Swap evening TV with games and music. Play cards, boardgames and listen to music you enjoy at the same time.
• Explore new things like writing, crafting and doing puzzles.
• Listen to audiobooks to unwind (instead of watching mindless TV).

The Impact of Blue Light

How Does Blue Light Impact Sleep?

• Suppresses melatonin production. Melatonin is the hormone that regulates your sleep. You take melatonin on a long flight because it makes you tired. You sleep, you avoid jet leg. Blue light from screens suppresses melatonin so you stay awake longer than you should.
• Delays circadian rhythm. Blue light shifts your body clock so you stay up later—even when you shouldn’t. Try to avoid screens for 1 – 2 hours before bed to get the best sleep quality.
• Increases sleep latency. Screens in bed means you will take longer to fall asleep and get less REM sleep. REM sleep is the crucial restful sleep everyone needs to feel rested when waking.

Benefits of Blue Light Blocking Glasses and Apps

• Use blue light blocking glasses whenever you can to minimize negative effects on sleep, eye strain and headaches.
• Use apps like F.Lux to automatically adjust your screen settings based on the time of day.

Set An Example For Your Kids By Following The Same Screen-Free Rules

• Children and teens are more likely to follow screen-free rules if you are also following the rules.
• Set specific and easy to follow rules—no screens during meals, no screens in bedrooms etc.
• Do physical activities and games with your kids—show them fun things you did growing up.

Lead By Doing

• House Rules. Setup screen-free time as house rules not just kids rules.
• Screen-Free Areas of Your House. Have clear no screen areas of the house. The kitchen table, the bedroom—whatever you want. Obviously, you and your kids like to watch TV, movies, play video games, go on the computer etc. But make sure those activities are done in specific areas for specific times per day.
• Screen-Free Times of The Day. Before bed is the most common and benefit driven screen-free time of day. During meals is also common. You decide and stick to it for 30 days.

Replace Screen Time With Fun Time

• What did you do growing up? Did you play board games? Cards? Ride your bike? Climb trees? Build Lego? Do all these things with your kids or else they will just sit on their phones all night.
• Try drawing, puzzles or just in general introducing new hobbies—some will stick, some won’t.
• Use this time to strengthen family bonds with storytelling, charades or even camping in the backyard.

Be Consistent

• You must enforce the same rules for everyone. Kids are smart and won’t think the rules are important if you are not following them.
• Stick to the routines daily. Have a checklist or award type system for each day.
• Has the added benefit of helping your kids learn how to form habits.

Celebrate Offline Activities

• Give treats or awards for finishing a book, puzzle or painting.
• Create a family tradition like pizza and games night every Friday. Encourage them to invite friends and have fun.

Teach Balance & Moderation

• Don’t vilify screens. Teach about their pros and cons and the best way to use them.
• Phones, TVs, computers and tablets are all great tools for daily life—their usage just needs to be managed.

Free Download: 99 Screen-Free Activities For Kids

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References