Your sleep sets your day. Your phone steals your sleep. Remove it from the room and you remove 80 percent of late night drift and early morning derailment.

What this rule means

• No phone charging in the bedroom.
• No scrolling in bed at night or on waking.
• Your alarm is not your phone.

Why it works

• Protects circadian rhythm by removing bright, novel stimuli before sleep.
• Cuts bedtime procrastination and morning autopilot.
• Lowers stress and reactivity on waking.
• Increases reading, reflection, and real rest.

Set it up in 10 minutes

1. Pick a parking spot outside the bedroom. Kitchen counter or hallway shelf.
2. Plug in a separate charger there. Leave it permanently.
3. Buy a simple alarm clock. Test it once.
4. Create a wind down tray: book, notepad, pen, lip balm, earplugs.
5. Move all phone based tasks earlier. Set reminders to finish by T minus 60 minutes to bedtime.

Night routine without a phone

• T minus 60: wrap work and messages, set phone to Do Not Disturb, park it.
• T minus 30: hygiene and light stretches or reading.
• T minus 10: lights dim, notebook brain dump, lights out.

Morning routine without a phone

• Stand up on the first alarm.
• Water, light, movement. Open blinds, 10 slow squats, then make the bed.
• Silent sit or short journal. Only after that, retrieve the phone.

Handle exceptions

• Emergencies: enable calls from favorites to ring through a secondary device or a basic handset on the nightstand.
• Kids or on call: keep a dumb phone or a tablet in airplane mode with only the essential app signed in.
• Travel: put the smartphone in a bag across the room and use a cheap travel alarm.

Tripwires that help

• Use a mechanical outlet timer that cuts power to the phone charging spot at your bedtime.
• Place a book on your pillow each morning so the bed cues reading at night.
• Keep a tiny notepad by the bed for ideas. Write one line and return to sleep.

Replace, do not just remove

• Replace doomscrolling with 10 pages of a real book.
• Replace late night messages with a single “office hours” reply earlier in the evening.
• Replace morning feeds with a one line plan: “Today will be a win if I ___.”

Metrics that matter

• Nights the phone slept outside the bedroom this week.
• Time from lights out to sleep. Aim for under 20 minutes.
• Snooze count. Keep it at zero.
• Morning phone delay. Aim for 30 to 60 minutes after waking.

Common objections and quick answers

• “My phone is my alarm.” Get a ten dollar alarm clock.
• “I read on my phone.” Use a paper book or an e-reader in airplane mode without apps.
• “I might miss something.” Set VIP rules before night. The rest can wait.

A 7 day reset

• Days 1 to 2: set the parking spot and buy the alarm clock.
• Days 3 to 4: complete the wind down with the phone parked.
• Days 5 to 7: keep the phone out until after your morning silence and plan.

Commitment statement

“My bedroom is for sleep and recovery. My phone charges outside. I end the day calm and start the day clear.”