How to stop doomscrolling at night: a 14-day plan

What the research says

Doomscrolling (endlessly scrolling bad news or any feed, usually late at night) is new as a word, but screens and sleep are one of the most studied links in health psychology. Three findings are worth knowing, with their limits.

The Norwegian study (2025). Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland, Børge Sivertsen and colleagues surveyed 45,202 students aged 18 to 28. One more hour of screen use after going to bed was linked to 1.59 times the odds of insomnia symptoms and 24 minutes less sleep. The surprise: social media wasn't worse than other activities such as streaming, videos or browsing. What mattered was time on a screen in bed, whatever was on it. The big caveat is that it's cross-sectional: some people who sleep badly probably reach for the phone because they can't sleep.

The Belgian study (2016). Liese Exelmans and Jan Van den Bulck surveyed 844 Flemish adults aged 18 to 94. Sixty percent took their phone to the bedroom, and phone use at bedtime was linked to worse sleep quality, more insomnia symptoms and more fatigue.

In young people. A systematic review by Lauren Hale and Stanford Guan (2015) found screen time was linked to worse sleep (later bedtimes, shorter sleep) in 90% of 67 studies of children and teenagers.

What about blue light? It plays a part, which we cover in our evening routine guide. But an endless feed has a simpler cost: every video takes a few minutes from your night. The NHS suggests avoiding phones, tablets and computers for an hour before bed.

Why putting the phone down is so hard

In 2014, Floor Kroese and colleagues at Utrecht University described bedtime procrastination: going to bed later than intended when nothing is stopping you. At night, three forces team up:

1. Tiredness makes it harder to stop. Putting the phone down takes effort at exactly the moment you have the least.
2. The feed never ends. A book has chapters, a show has episodes; a feed has no natural stopping point.
3. Scrolling meets a real need: unwinding, some time alone, seeing what others are up to. Remove the scrolling without meeting that need and it comes back.

That's why willpower alone fails, and why a plan has to change your surroundings: where the phone sleeps, which apps are one tap away, and what you do instead. Our guide on how to break a bad habit covers the general method; this is how it applies to late-night scrolling.

Cutting back works: two randomized trials

Two experiments suggest you don't have to quit social media entirely.

• Hunt et al. (2018): 143 University of Pennsylvania students were randomly assigned. Those who limited Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat to 10 minutes per app per day for three weeks reported less loneliness and fewer depression symptoms than the control group.
• Allcott et al. (2020): in an experiment published in the American Economic Review, deactivating Facebook for four weeks slightly improved self-reported well-being, and participants kept using Facebook less after the experiment ended.

Both studies looked at use across the whole day, not just at night. But they make a useful point: a clear limit, kept for a few weeks, can change habits for good.

The 14-day plan

Days 1–3: measure. Open your phone's screen time report (Screen Time on iPhone, Digital Wellbeing on Android) and each night write down three things: when you put the phone down, which apps you used, and what triggered the first pick-up (boredom, a notification, needing to unwind). Three nights of honest numbers give you a starting point.

Days 4–7: cut off. Pick a realistic cut-off. If you usually put the phone down at 12:30 am, aim for 11:30 pm, not 9 pm. Move the charger to the hallway or kitchen, and buy a $10 alarm clock if your phone wakes you up. Line up a replacement that meets the same need: a paperback on the nightstand, a podcast on a speaker, a conversation, some stretching.

Days 8–11: lock down. Your phone has tools built for this:

Add two simple bits of friction: log out of social apps at night, and move their icons off your home screen. Every extra step gives you a second to ask whether you really want to open the app.

Days 12–14: consolidate. Keep the settings, and decide your exceptions in advance: the late game on Saturday, a call with family in another time zone. A planned exception isn't a failure. On day 14, compare your evening screen time with days 1 to 3.

Track it as a habit to quit

"Scroll less" is too vague to track. Turn it into a rule you can tick: "No phone in bed after 11:30 pm". Each night, yes or no. Planned days off cover the exceptions.

For more on keeping a streak going, see our habit tracker guide.

Running the plan with Binome360

In Binome360 you create a habit in one sentence, including a habit to quit, plus a reminder for the move that makes it possible: plugging the phone in outside the bedroom. The assistant prepares both; you confirm.

After fourteen days, your streak tells you whether the rule holds. If it doesn't, move the cut-off 30 minutes later rather than giving up.

Frequently asked questions

Why is it so hard to stop scrolling at night?

Because tiredness makes stopping harder, the feed has no natural end, and scrolling meets a real need to unwind. Changing your surroundings (phone out of the bedroom, blocking tools) works better than relying on willpower.

How long before bed should I put my phone away?

The NHS suggests an hour. If that feels impossible, start with 30 minutes and a phone charging outside the bedroom, then stretch it.

Is night mode enough?

No. It reduces blue light but not the time you spend scrolling. The 2025 Norwegian study linked time on a screen in bed to less sleep regardless of what people were doing.

Do I need to delete social media?

Not necessarily. In Hunt and colleagues' trial, a limit of 10 minutes per app per day improved well-being within three weeks. Start with a limit at night.

In short

Late-night scrolling takes time from your sleep, and willpower alone won't stop it. Measure for three days, cut off at a fixed time with the phone outside the bedroom, lock down with your phone's own tools, then consolidate. First step: tonight, charge your phone in another room and note the time.

Sources

• Gunnhild Johnsen Hjetland, Jens Christoffer Skogen, Mari Hysing, Michael Gradisar and Børge Sivertsen, "How and when screens are used: comparing different screen activities and sleep in Norwegian university students", Frontiers in Psychiatry, 16, 1548273, 2025: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
• Liese Exelmans and Jan Van den Bulck, "Bedtime mobile phone use and sleep in adults", Social Science & Medicine, 148, 93–101, 2016: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
• Lauren Hale and Stanford Guan, "Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: A systematic literature review", Sleep Medicine Reviews, 21, 50–58, 2015: sciencedirect.com.
• Floor M. Kroese, Denise T. D. De Ridder, Catharine Evers and Marieke A. Adriaanse, "Bedtime procrastination: introducing a new area of procrastination", Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 611, 2014: frontiersin.org.
• Melissa G. Hunt, Rachel Marx, Courtney Lipson and Jordyn Young, "No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression", Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 37(10), 751–768, 2018: guilfordjournals.com.
• Hunt Allcott, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer and Matthew Gentzkow, "The Welfare Effects of Social Media", American Economic Review, 110(3), 629–676, 2020: aeaweb.org.
• NHS Every Mind Matters, "How to fall asleep faster and sleep better": nhs.uk.
• Apple Support, "Set Screen Time schedules and time allowances on iPhone": support.apple.com.
• Google, Android Help, "Manage how you spend time on your Android phone with Digital Wellbeing": support.google.com.

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