Calm · 10 min
Ten pagesinstead of the phone
At bedtime, charge the phone outside the bedroom and read ten pages of a paper book by a low lamp.
The last thing you look at before sleep shapes how you arrive at it. This practice swaps the scroll for ten pages.
The steps
Four small steps,in your own time.
Choose a book you are enjoying, not one you think you should read. Put it by the bed.
Plug the phone in outside the bedroom, or across the room, before you get into bed.
Read ten pages by a low lamp. If you lose track, read the same page again.
Stop at ten pages, or when your eyes grow heavy, and turn out the light.
The reason
Why it helps
A phone at night is built to keep you looking. A book is not. It has an end to each page and a natural place to stop, which makes it an easier way down into the night. Many people also find that the stories they read last thing come with them into sleep, instead of the news.
A gentle variation
If you need the phone near you for someone you look after, keep it on the bedside face down with the sound on, and read anyway.
WE · TRIBE
Try itwith someone.
If you share a bed, agree on phones outside the room together, and read side by side. Or read one page aloud to each other.
Try it today
Tonight, leave the phone outside the bedroom and read ten pages of a book by a low lamp before you turn out the light.
More like this
More from VIVE Calm,for real days.
Calm · 10 min
Find a small pocket for reading
Ten minutes in a day you already have: the bus, the waiting room, the kettle. Keep a book where the pocket is.
Calm · 15 min
Read aloud to someone
A chapter, a poem, a page of the paper, read out loud to a child, a partner or someone who is unwell.
Calm · 3 min
Keep one poem in your pocket
Copy out one short poem you like, keep it in your pocket or phone case, and read it once a day this week.