While there is such a strong connection between our neurotransmitters and gut health, there are also things we do every single day that have a major impact on things like our serotonin, dopamine, and other chemical messengers.
These habits are critical because they can quite literally sabotage our health goals or set us up for success.
And what’s one habit that strips us of our dopamine and leaves it hard to get motivated to do anything else?
Morning cellphone use.
When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? Rub your eyes and stretch? Run to the bathroom? Or maybe you grab your phone and check your emails and your socials? Perhaps take a quick pass at the Wordle? Browse the latest headlines?
Don’t worry, we’re not here to judge.
In fact, nearly 90 percent of Americans start their day by reaching for their smartphones within 10 minutes of waking. Unfortunately, a growing mountain of research indicates that starting our days with our phones in hand is damaging our health.
No one faults you for reaching for your phone throughout the day, even in the moments after your eyes first open.
Smartphones are doing things for us that we never imagined a few short decades ago, and they are helpful tools. However, for most users, smartphones quickly become an example of too much of a good thing.
But what’s so bad about grabbing your phone to start your day?
- Starting the day staring at a bright screen can cause eye strain, headaches, and even long-term issues with your visual health.
- Starting your day with news, notifications, and social media causes stress levels to rise rapidly and stay elevated throughout the day.
- With your cell phone in hand, your morning routine is more likely to get off to a slower start, often causing cascading frustrations as you try to catch up and get back on schedule.
- Engaging your smartphone before you say good morning to your partner is a recipe for relational disaster as partners are more likely to feel rejected or neglected due to the other entity in bed.
- Procrastination and smartphone use are a match made in productivity hell; that first look at the phone frequently causes users to delay tackling projects and routines that are otherwise important.
- Checking work emails, messages, and schedules first thing in the morning contributes to overall difficulty with detachment from work leading to more complaints of an imbalance between work and private life.
- Exposing yourself to the blue light of the screen short circuits the natural progression of your brain waves from delta waves (fully asleep) to beta waves (fully awake), largely skipping important theta and alpha waves.
How you spend time in the morning shapes whether you will be more proactive or more reactive the rest of the day, and consuming news, social media, or other digital inputs before you have had time to center yourself puts you in a reactive state.
All these potential hazards of early morning smartphone use have a negative impact on your health. While smartphone use primarily impacts brain function and floods you with dopamine every time you grab that little device, we know that your health is intricately connected—what hurts your brain eventually impacts your gut health, your cancer risk, your cardiovascular health and so much more.
So how can you roll back these potential risks? Here are a few simple tips to break that pre-breakfast phone habit:
- Don’t use your phone as your alarm.
- Don’t take your phone into the bathroom.
- Charge your phone outside your bedroom.
- Set up a Do Not Disturb schedule to reduce notifications and the temptation to grab that phone.
- Break the pre-bedtime phone habit to help you sleep better and wake up more rested and less likely to be tempted by the draw of the phone.
- Create new healthy routines to start your day: try reading, prayer or meditation, exercise, spending time with family, walking the dog, journaling, or preparing a healthy breakfast.
While changing habits can be a challenge, the benefits for your health are worthwhile. You deserve to build a life that nourishes you in body, mind, and soul.
We challenge you to try these tips for a week and see if you notice a difference—let us know how you feel!