Keeping a Phone Out of the Bedroom May Support Better Sleep and Calmer Mornings

Moving a phone out of the bedroom may make it easier to sleep and begin the day without immediately turning to email or social media. In one writer’s two-week personal trial, leaving the phone to charge in the living room coincided with easier sleep, fewer nighttime awakenings and calmer, more productive mornings. That’s an encouraging experience, but it’s not a clinical study and can’t show that the change will have the same effect for everyone.

A two-week change to the bedtime routine

The writer had already tried setting screen limits on email and social media from 9 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. The limits were easy to override, though: a brief extension often led to more scrolling, sometimes while getting ready for bed or after saying goodnight to her husband. Her book stayed on the nightstand while the phone remained in her hand.

For two weeks, she began charging her phone in the living room between 9 and 9:30 p.m. It stayed there while she completed her evening skincare and dental routines, and it wasn’t beside her when she woke. She wears a smartwatch to sleep and relied on its alarm, and understood that it would alert her if an emergency call came in. Even so, the first nights brought some unease: she missed being able to check her inbox before bed and the weather first thing in the morning.

She says she found it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep from nearly the first night. She recalls waking twice during the first week, both times because of minor hamstring pain after a running fall. Those observations are personal recollections, not measurements from a sleep study; they can suggest what felt different to her, but don’t establish how much her sleep changed.

The morning shift stood out too. Without the phone nearby, she was less likely to check email or scroll Instagram before getting out of bed. She says it became easier to stop snoozing, get ready and start work. Her usual routine was to write for about an hour before checking email and having breakfast. By the time she collected her phone, she found it easier to put it in her pocket and get to her desk. She felt less anxious and more productive, although the experience doesn’t prove the phone change alone caused those effects.

Why the phone’s location may matter

Natalie Dautovich, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, directs the Chronopsychology: The Daily Life Research Lab and is a senior research fellow at the National Sleep Foundation. She describes several ways phone use could interfere with sleep: time spent scrolling can displace bedtime, emotionally engaging content can make it harder to wind down, screen light may affect circadian rhythms, and notifications can disturb sleep.

There can also be a learned association between the bedroom and phone use. If a phone is habitually within reach in bed, the setting may become linked with whatever the device brings—messages, headlines or social media—rather than being reserved for rest. Leaving it in another room adds effort to picking it up and removes a cue that might otherwise prompt a quick check.

Dautovich notes that sleep challenges in midlife women can have several overlapping contributors, including anxiety, depressive symptoms, symptoms associated with menopause, work and family demands, and caregiving. When sleep is already vulnerable, stimulating content before bed may leave less room to recover. This is general context, not a diagnosis of the writer or an explanation that applies to every woman.

Keeping the phone away in the morning may also leave space for a different routine. As Dautovich puts it, time that would have gone to checking a device can be used for another activity, which may be more helpful to that person’s day.

Making the change easier to keep

The writer’s main obstacle was remembering to leave the phone outside the bedroom. Dautovich suggests attaching the phone’s charging routine to an existing nightly habit, such as washing your face or brushing your teeth. A familiar cue can make the new step easier to remember.

It may help to choose a calming activity to take the place of scrolling. A paper book is one option, provided the subject isn’t emotionally activating. Dautovich says she chooses cozy mysteries about a bakery or an animal because she finds them low-key; more emotionally affecting reading is better saved for daytime if it keeps you alert.

A warm bath or hot drink can be another part of a wind-down routine. Dautovich explains that body temperature typically drops as sleep approaches. Getting warm in a bath and then moving into a cooler room may mimic some of that change and help signal relaxation, though it won’t work the same way for everyone.

For people who wake with anxious thoughts, Dautovich suggests setting aside 15 to 30 minutes to think through worries—or write them down—before starting the bedtime routine. Putting concerns on paper may help close some of the mental loops that otherwise return during the night.

Families may also choose to make charging phones outside bedrooms a shared routine. Dautovich says parents model habits that children observe, and that talking about sleep as a family can matter. A 2024 consensus statement from the National Sleep Foundation reported that screen use impairs sleep for children and teens.

What the experience can—and can’t—tell you

The writer kept the phone out of the bedroom after the trial ended. She says she’s read more of the books by her bed and feels calmer about her workload, even though she hasn’t met every deadline. Her account points to a practical idea: changing where a phone charges can make late-night checks and first-thing-in-the-morning scrolling less automatic.

Because this was one person’s experience over two weeks, it can’t show that docking a phone improves sleep or reduces anxiety for most people. Sleep has many influences, and a bedroom phone may be only one of them. If sleep problems or anxiety persist, affect daily life, or raise concerns about health, a conversation with a doctor can help identify what might be contributing and what support is appropriate.