Would you share the phone’s screen -time average with your friends? How about with your colleagues? If you are, like most people, the answer to that question is probably no.

It is a common experience that feeling embarrassed by time You spend on your phone and make it a goal to spend less time browsing and sms. According to a survey of 2022 Gallup58% of adults in the United States said they are on their phone too much, and a survey by Pew Research Center 2024 found that 39% of teens have made an overall effort to be less on the phone.

Being on your phone is not in itself bad; Smart phones offer services such as map functionality, banking functions and the ability to keep in touch with long -distance family and friends. But there is a nice line. Too much telephone use can lead to lost timeincreased symptoms of depression and anxiety and lack of connection to loved ones, making it understandable why many people do Want to disconnect a little more.

It is not an easy performance to break with your phone, but – especially if you are used to being on it for hours every day. This is a practice from Christine RosenAn older colleague at the American Enterprise Institute, a research group for general politics in Washington, DC, comes in. I first heard about this practice on a section of Vox’s “The Gray Area” -PodcastWhere the rose talked to host Sean Illing about telephone use.

The exercise described on the podcast is quite simple:

“This is completely unscientific in the sense that I thought about it as a test for myself when I was researching and writing my book … I noticed that I was enough for my phone too often for short moments of delay during my day,” said The rose to Huffpost.

“What I did and what I have challenged many of my friends and family to do too is take 24 hours and not enough for your phone when you have a moment of break,” she added and referred to these cases as “interstitial moments. “

This 24-hour exercise may sound easy, but that’s anything but. Our phones are designed to keep us want more, the rose noted; They give us a short dopamine hit. But it can be a rewarding exercise to try.

“What the challenge did is to make me realize that I did not notice what was happening around me, that I did not pay attention to things and then I did not give my brain a break because just not stimulated by anything,” the rose said.

After the 24-hour exercise, Rosen decided that she wanted to live more so every day and ultimately have more awareness of the world around her. This exercise is not supposed to be a punishment; Instead, it is supposed to be a lesson in consciousness, she said.

Jenny Wisea licensed marriage and family therapist and author of Mediatox on SubstackSaid what she finds encouraging with this exercise is that 24 hours is not too long to try anything. You will probably also see profits at the end of the timeline.

“What is really fun about this work is when you set boundaries in place, you see the benefits fairly quickly, more than we do in other areas of our lives,” Wise told Huffpost.

For example in a 2023 studyResearchers at Iowa State University found that restrictive use use on social media to 30 minutes a day reduced depression and anxiety in students.

You can take this 24-hour challenge a step further by keeping your phone out of your bedroom as you go to bed and wake up, said the rose at the Vox podcast. Instead of using your phone as an alarm, get a regular alarm clock to wake you in the morning so you don’t immediately jump into IE post or social media. Wise said this can help make your bedroom a sacred space from the rest of the world.

“Not letting your phone in that space will be even more valuable than you would think. It’s not just the time for your mind to recover, it actually tells yourself that the sacred space is real and safe space is real, ”Wise said.

The moments of nothing are necessary for our mental and emotional health. The uninterrupted telephone pings and notifications can lead to over -stimulation.

“What we know, both from neuroscientific research and only everyday, human experiences, if you are overstimulated, it can lead to all kinds of emotions,” Rosen said. This includes anxietyNervousness and feeling overwhelmed.

The overwhelming only worsens this day when we have access to a “fire hose of information”, she noted, where we can open our phones at any time and see what is happening all over the world. “But we are actually not a hard drive to be able to process and understand all this, it’s just not the way our brains work,” the rose added.

Pausing during the day and giving your mind a break from stimulation resembles a period of silent healing and rest, she said. In a way, this can get bored, and that’s good.

“I know people would say, ‘Oh, but I like the distraction, why would I want to get bored? Sadness is ineffective. Sadness is also bad for me. “In fact, we know that boredom can lead to creativity,” Rosen said.

For many people, phones offer a distraction from uncomfortable situations or feelings.

“I think the dependence that we need to distraction is a very real addiction,” Wise said.

When you let your mind walk instead of browsing social media, your brain can go to worried thoughts instead of nice, and that’s perfectly ok.

“At least you are aware of your own thoughts. You are not trying to run away or escape from these thoughts by looking at the phone, ”said the rose.

Think about it – say you are nervous about a problem with your family. Instead of thinking about that problem, it is probably easier to distract yourself by picking up your phone to catch up on social media. Or if you lose patience with the person in line in front of you in the grocery store, it is probably also easier for angry to sms a friend about the situation instead of sitting in the real world and being patience.

Reality Can Be difficult to handle, wisely stressed, but this 24-hour exercise is a way to practice developing the muscles required to stay in reality, whether good or not so good.

“And being able to sit comfortably with your thoughts instead of drowning them through telephone use helps to develop a healthier sense of self, patience and calm,” the rose said.

Wise explained that these moments of the mind wandering and boredom are “microments” and “our mental health is reinforced and strengthened by them.” Between the loneliness epidemic in the country and rising speeds of depressionWise would not be surprised “we discovered one day that our mental health crisis is a result of not having these microments anymore.”

“Your brain needs time to digest input just like your stomach needs time to digest food,” Wise said.

“I think the most important thing to think about if you are going to try this is that your daily, moments of moments are really important for your long -term sense of well -being,” Rosen said.

Not picking up your phone on the five minutes before your subway arrives may feel like a small choice, but over time these choices add. Allowing your mind to wander or label those around you at the subway station will eventually change your state of mind.

“I think it will really help many people feel not only a little more calm and in control, but also just to be more thought -provoking and open to the other people’s experiences that we all share the world with,” Rosen said.