【Philippines adult】

Having trouble sleeping?Philippines adultHit Snoozeis Mashable's deep dive into the many ways to achieve a more peaceful slumber.

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Recently, I've had to adjust to sleeping alone.

I've slept with the same companion for as long as I can remember, but lately I've been thinking that some time apart might be healthy. After years of sleeping no more than two feet away from this companion every night, I took the terrifying initiative to put some physical space between us. It wasn't easy, but it turned out to be a valuable learning experience.

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To be clear, I'm not talking about distancing myself from another human being. The companion I decided to part ways with at night is my phone.

I sleep beside my iPhone every single night and spend hours texting, scrolling through social media, and watching television shows in the dark. I lie in bed and strain my eyes to look at the screen until I fall asleep, and when insomnia strikes in the middle of the night I reach for the device again to comfort me.

How close my phone usually is to me at night. Credit: Getty Images / iStockphoto

I know that using my phone in bed is bad, OK? I'm well aware that blue light can stress your eyes and reduce your quality of sleep, but when I need to slow my racing thoughts in a dark room, staring at my phone works for me.

A former editor once told me that he sleeps in an entirely different room as his phone to ensure he's able to properly unwind before bed. He charges the phone downstairs in his kitchen, then goes to sleep upstairs in his bedroom. Hearing this shocked me, since I struggled to imagine myself in a different room as my phone at night. But it was always something I admired and wanted to try one day, so I thought Mashable's Hit Snoozewas the perfect opportunity.

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I planned to sleep in a different room as my phone for an entire week. I decided to charge the phone out in the hall so it'd be far enough away to discourage usage, but close enough that I could access it in the event of an emergency. I dug out this gorgeous relic — a Sony Dream Machine alarm and clock radio — from my basement. I plugged it in, and set my first non-phone alarm in more than a decade for 8:00 a.m.

Vintage Sony Dream Machine alarm clock. Credit: nicole gallucci / mashable

Day 1: Wednesday

I started my phone-less experiment on Wednesday, March 18. Thankfully, I was tired from waking up early that morning to get some work done, so when I headed to bed around 11:30 p.m. my body didn't have the energy to worry about not being able to complete its usual Twitter or Instagram check. I drifted off to sleep minutes after my head hit the pillow, and the experiment was off to a promising start. Then, I woke up at 6:00 a.m.

My alarm wasn't set to go off for another two hours, and I didn't have my phone to distract me, so after 20 minutes of lying there — overthinking what felt like every aspect of my life — I decided to get up and start my day early... again. I wound up being productive rather than staring at my phone in bed for two hours, which was nice. But I was a little bummed that I didn't get my authentic alarm clock wakeup.

Day 2: Thursday

Great news! By Wednesday night I was wiped the hell out from waking up early the past few days, so I once again fell asleep without issue. I slept a full night, but was startled awake at 8:00 a.m. by my alarm clock's horrendous-sounding buzzer. Not the nicest sound to wake up to, but an overall successful sleep away from my phone.

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Since I snoozed a solid eight hours on Wednesday night, I wasn't able to fall asleep as quickly on Thursday night. I was awake until around 1:30am worrying about the state of the world, and eventually decided to turn the lights back on and read a physical bookto distract myself. Once I got tired enough, I turned the lights off and fell right to sleep.

I was particularly pumped for my alarm clock to go off Friday morning, because I changed it from "buzzer" to "radio" and was hoping to wake up to something fun like Lizzo. But much to my dismay I didn't get to experience the radio, because (again) I opened my eyes around 6:00 a.m. I decided it'd be best to get up and start my day early. "It's fine!" I thought. "The weekend is almost here, which means I'll catch up on all my sleep."

Day 3: Friday

Boy, was I wrong. I usually stay up later on weekend nights and, as I mentioned before, catch up on texts or TV shows. Since I knew I couldn't spend hours on my phone if I went to bed at a reasonable time, I stayed up until midnight even though I was incredibly tired. Big mistake. HUGE.

When I finally went upstairs and parted ways with my beloved device, I was so overtired that I proceeded to lie awake in bed for a full and torturous hour and a half.I finally fell asleep around 1:30 a.m., but woke up at 4:00 a.m. for a while, and again at 6:00 a.m. from a coronavirus nightmare. Instead of staying in bed I got up and went to the store as soon as it opened to pick up some essentials. This was by far my worst phone-less night of the week.

What I wish I was doing on Friday night. Credit: Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images

Day 4: Saturday

The only bright side of not sleeping well on Friday night was that when I got into bed on Saturday night I was so exhausted that I fell asleep immediately. I even slept until 8:30 a.m. Love that journey for me.

Day 5: Sunday

My mind was racing on Sunday night, and I was dying to tweet a dumb thought I had about Gilmore Girlsand Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. At one point I even reached for my phone to go on Twitter, but the phone was in the hall so I couldn't tweet. "It's probably better this way," I thought to myself with a chuckle. "No one actuallyneeded to read that thought."

I fell asleep after a few minutes of thinking, then finally woke up to the radio.But I got scammed. Instead of music, a Geico ad was playing. 🙄

Day 6: Monday

An important article of mine published on Monday, so I felt relived by the time I went to sleep that night. I fell asleep pretty fast, but guess who woke up early again on Tuesday? (In the experiment's defense, Tuesday was the 15th anniversary of The Officeand I was too excited to sleep.)

Day 7: Tuesday

After a successful day spent celebrating The Office, I unwound before bed Tuesday night by reading a book and got a full night's sleep.

At 8:00 a.m. a familiar sound coaxed me awake. "Straight Up," the 1988 jam by Paula Abdul, was playing from my alarm clock. It was the best wakeup I've had all year. I smiled, I wriggled a little under my bedding, and I let the song finish before I got up to turn the alarm clock off. The experiment ended on the perfect note.

I made it through the week, and I'm proud of myself

Before I embarked on my phone-less week of sleep, I was terrified. My insomnia has gotten increasingly worse as the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow, so I wasn't sure if I was emotionally ready to be apart from my go-to distraction at night. The experiment wasn't always easy, but I made it through, and it wasn't as hard as I feared it would be.

I did have a few very early mornings, and had I had my phone nearby I probably would have been able to check it for a few minutes and then fall back to sleep. But I did like the feeling of waking up and getting out of bed without spending any time on social media.

I thought falling asleep without my phone would be way more difficult than it was, but the experiment reminded me that there are other ways to tire myself out before bed, like reading books or writing. For me, the hardest nights were Friday and Saturday. I found that I really cherish staying plugged in later on weekend nights, and I missed unwinding from the week by staying up late and watching TV in bed.

Ultimately, I genuinely enjoyed sleeping without my phone in the room during the week, and plan to buy a more high-tech alarm clock and try to make phone-less weekday sleeps a regular thing. But I've decided I can have little a phone in bed on the weekends, as a treat.