Greetings friends! Hope you all are fine, in good health and enjoying. It took me three days to complete this blog, which is probably why it is so long.
Today's blog is not about any game, crypto update, or my daily life routine, but on an issue of which today every second person among us has become a victim.How Can 7 Days of Screen Detox Bring Mental Peace? Have you ever sat down and thought with a cool mind that as soon as the eyes open in the morning, why does the hand go straight toward the mobile? Or at night eyes are closing due to sleep, burning is happening, but fingers are automatically moving up and down on the screen?
We feel that we are just sitting free passing time or relaxing a little, but inside the matter is running something else. Actually, it is called Screen Fatigue / Screen Exhaustion and Dopamine Addiction.
Image Created with Google Gemini
Today I will talk comfortably and according to medical science, what this circle actually is, and how to get out of this swamp and make the brain peaceful.
My Own Experience
Two nights ago the time was around 11 o'clock. Working the whole day on mobile, drafting blogs, curations, and checking different apps, the head had become badly heavy. There was stiffness in the neck and eyes were tired and broken. While lying down on the bed I thought: "Brother let me just see the mobile for 5 minutes, no notification or important message is left, then I will sleep".
But the same happened which happens with all of us. Those 5 minutes when converted into one whole hour, I didn't even know! Sometimes a short video, sometimes a useless clip of Facebook, then sometimes TikTok reels. Suddenly when I saw the clock, it was 12:30 at night.
At that time I felt such a severe heaviness in my head as if someone had put bricks on the brain. I mentioned this headache of mine to @wardah who is a physiotherapist. The next morning when eyes opened, instead of being fresh it felt as if sleep did not come the whole night. I went into mobile settings and checked screen time, then my senses flew away. Daily 6 to 10 hours screen time! Meaning one-fourth or almost half part of the day was being wasted just staring at this glass box. In which some time is for Hive, while the remaining time is in useless activities.
"Later when I did a little research on this, I found out that a normal human on average touches or swipes his mobile screen more than 2,600 times in a day, and for heavy users like me, this count goes even above 5,000 times! Meaning without realizing, we have handed over our life to these few inches of glass."
Then I understood that if I don't handle myself now, this thing will destroy my focus and all mental peace.
The Game of Dopamine: What do apps do with our brain?
First understand this, what is happening with our brain? There is a chemical in our brain which is called Dopamine. This is actually the chemical of "reward and motivation".
In old times when a person used to do some hard work. When he used to win a match or complete some difficult task, then the brain used to release a little dopamine. From which a person used to get real happiness and peace. Meaning for happiness, some hard work had to be done. But today's social media and apps have turned the whole system upside down:
- Cheap and instant happiness: You swiped the screen, watched a 15-second video, the brain got an instant dose of dopamine. Video finished, finger went up, another dose. Without any hard work, the brain starts getting free happiness.
- Gambling machine circle: The scrolling system of social media is just like a gambling machine. A person thinks: "Maybe in the next video there is something more fun!" In the greed of this, saying 5 minutes, a person wastes 2 hours.
- Numbing of the brain: When the bombardment of cheap dopamine keeps happening the whole day, the sensors of the brain become slow. Then normal life things like eating food sitting peacefully, talking sitting with someone. Or reading a book starts looking very boring, because so fast dopamine is not received from them.
What is happening with us due to excess of screen?
We think that we have only used mobile, what will go wrong with it. But this thing quietly makes a human hollow from inside, for example:
- Heaviness of head and focus zero
Has it ever happened with you that you start doing some work and after two minutes forget what you were doing? This is the effect of digital overload, and with me, this often keeps happening. So much trash fills up in the brain that sitting stuck on one single work becomes impossible.
- Destruction of sleep
The bright blue light of mobile makes the brain a fool through the eyes that daytime is going on right now, don't sleep! In result, the natural system bringing sleep stops. Even if a person spends 8 hours on the bed, still getting up in the morning the body is breaking.
"Looked from the perspective of medical science, a research of Harvard proves this that at night this blue light of screen suppresses our natural sleep hormone (Melatonin) almost up to 50 percent. That is why even if a person spends 8 hours on the bed, still getting up in the morning the body is breaking because the brain is not able to go into the phase of deep sleep at all."
- Useless tension and comparison
On Instagram or Facebook every person is showing shining and edited moments of his life. Sitting on the bed we start comparing our normal everyday life with their show-off, and without reason get involved in inferiority complex and depression.
Dopamine / Screen Detox: What is truth and what is illusion?
On the internet people have made such a scary monster out of dopamine detox that a person leaves everything and goes to sit in some jungle or cave. There is nothing like that.
Dopamine is extremely necessary for a human to stay alive. The straight and simple meaning of detox is only this:
- Those all useless and cheap triggers should be given a break for a few days which are sitting capturing our brain.
- The system of the brain should be brought back to that level where simple things of normal life also start feeling peaceful.
- Technology should be used for our own benefit, not that mobile makes us its slave.
7 Days Practical Roadmap
Today I was making this 7 days roadmap for myself, thought I should share it with you too:
First Stage: Clearing out useless notifications (Day 1 and 2)
First of all, from mobile settings, except WhatsApp, permanently turned off notifications of all social media apps, games, and simple messages. The rule is simple: Don't give this right to the phone that whenever it wants, it rings tin-tin and calls us. Whenever you feel the need, you open the app and check yourself.
Second Stage: Making the screen black and white (Day 3 and 4)
App developers intentionally keep such bright and red-yellow colors so that eyes keep pulling. To change this, I went into the display settings of my mobile and turned on Grayscale Mode. Believe me, as soon as these colors fly away and the screen starts looking like a lifeless newspaper. The heart to unlock the phone again and again without reason will automatically die.
Third Stage: Mobile Free Zones (Day 5 and 6)
I will try my best to make these two rules solid for myself:
- Dining table: While eating food, in hand mobile or in front any screen, I will not see at all.
- Before sleeping and after waking up: Half an hour before sleeping and immediately after waking up in the morning for the first 30 minutes do not touch the mobile. Put the phone on charge or keep it far away from your bed in some other corner at night, so that immediately after waking up the hand does not fall straight on the screen.
Fourth Stage: Digital Fast (Day 7)
On the last day of the week, turn off internet and Wi-Fi completely for at least 6 to 8 hours. Starting hours there will be restlessness, hand will go toward the pocket, but after a little while, all the burden on the head will start becoming light.
Go outside, sit with friends, have chats, or walk in the open air for a little while. With this, the tiredness of the whole day disappears in a few minutes.
Small Changes in Daily Habits
To change your routine, there is no need for any rocket science, just have to change a few everyday habits:
Start of the morning: Instead of running fingers on notifications and reels as soon as eyes open, first of all get fresh, drink one or two sips of water, and make a straight, simple plan of the day in the open air.
Use of free moments: As soon as boredom of two minutes is felt, instead of immediately opening shorts or Instagram, walk for a little while, take deep breaths, or just leave the mind empty quietly.
Focus during work: Leaving the habit of looking at the WhatsApp screen after every two minutes, focus continuously on one single work for at least 25 minutes, then look away from the screen for 5 minutes and see far.
Evening entertainment: Better than wasting 2 hours in mobile sitting on the sofa, sit with friends, have chats, or play a few frames of snooker (which is my best hobby).
Night routine: Instead of burning eyes in the sharp blue light of mobile in a dark room, dim the light, keep the phone aside, and sleep a peaceful sleep on time.
20-20-20 rule for eyes: Follow this simple trick told by American Optometric Association (AOA); after every 20 minutes of work on computer or phone, remove eyes for 20 seconds and look at something at least 20 feet away. With this, the muscles of the eyes immediately relax and the tension of the head decreases.
What to do in free time after leaving mobile?
Only leaving mobile is not enough, this free time has to be filled with some activity or the other otherwise a person runs back toward the screen:
- Book and focus: Give 15 to 20 minutes in a day to some good informative book. Social media has broken our focus into pieces, depth of the brain comes back by reading books.
- Physical sports and walk: Give movement to the body, in the evening go out for a walk with friends, play cricket, or play a match of snooker. When the body gets tired, the brain gets real and natural peace.
- Sitting face to face: Messages of WhatsApp can never be a substitute for sitting face to face. Sit with your close friends, drink tea, laugh openly, all nerve tension disappears from this.
Technology was made to make our work easy, but we have made ourselves its slave. The purpose of dopamine detox is not to leave the internet or work, but the real purpose is that when we are on the screen, focus on our work, and when work finishes, give time to real life and real people.
Hope this personal experience of mine was useful for you and gives a chance to think something new.
How many hours is your daily screen time going on and have you also ever felt this heaviness and tiredness in the head? Do share your opinion and experience in the comments below, I will be waiting for your comments.
Some Details have been asked with the help of Google Gemini.
This Blog is Originally written in Urdu and Translated with Google Gemini, I may Publish the Urdu Version as well (with declined rewards).
NOTE
- English isn't my First even Second Language, usually I write in Urdu and use Google Gemini or Google Translator to Translate into English. Everything I have written in this blog is Mine and nothing is copied from somewhere or is AI-generated.
- Photos have their source links. Those with no source link mean that those photos were taken from my own mobile phone.
- Don't hesitate to give your feedback , It will encourage my confidence.
- Thank you very much for reading and spending your Time.
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