No phone before bed: how long before sleep should you put it down?
By Bedline · Published
"No phone before bed" means putting your phone away for the last stretch of the evening, and sleep organisations put that stretch at 30 minutes to two hours. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests turning off electronics at least 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime, the NHS suggests an hour, and Cleveland Clinic calls an hour or two a good general rule. Pick a time you can keep every night, write it as a clock time, and make the phone hard to reach once it comes.
Key takeaways
- Put the phone away 30 to 60 minutes before you want to sleep; if that works, try moving it towards an hour or two.
- What you do on the phone may matter more than its light: Cleveland Clinic's sleep medicine expert says the content probably has more impact than the blue light.
- Night Shift and Do Not Disturb each fix one part of the problem; putting the phone out of reach, or pausing the apps you scroll, removes the feed itself.
- Charge the phone away from the bed and use a separate alarm clock, so the phone has no job to do at night.
- Bedline, an iPhone app, pauses the apps you choose from your phone-down time until your wake-up, every night; pausing apps needs a Premium plan.
Why put your phone away before bed?
Putting your phone away before bed matters for three reasons that research and sleep clinicians name: what you are doing on it, its light, and the time it takes. Michelle Drerup, PsyD, a sleep medicine expert at Cleveland Clinic, says "the content you're looking at probably has more of an impact than the blue light from the screens." A message from work, an argument in the comments or the next video keeps the mind busy at the point it should be winding down.
The light is real but smaller than its reputation. In a 2015 study in PNAS, Chang and colleagues had 12 young adults read for about four hours before bed in very dim light, on five evenings from an iPad set to full brightness and five from a printed book. After the iPad, they took about 10 minutes longer to fall asleep on average, their evening melatonin was suppressed, and they were sleepier the next morning. That is four hours on a bright screen in a laboratory, not ten minutes on a phone, so read it as a direction rather than a measure of your evening.
The time is the part people feel most. In a 2022 survey of 2,010 US adults commissioned by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 80% said they had lost sleep by staying up past their bedtime on social media, and 93% of Gen Z said the same.
What happens when you use your phone in bed?
Phone use after you get into bed is linked with less sleep in a large survey of students. Hjetland and colleagues analysed answers from more than 45,000 Norwegian students aged 18 to 28, collected in 2022, and published in Frontiers in Psychiatry in 2025. Each extra hour of screen use after going to bed was associated with 59% higher odds of insomnia symptoms and 24 minutes less sleep.
Two details in that study are worth knowing. First, social media was not worse than other screen activities: the link with sleep was about time in bed on a screen, not about which app. Second, the data come from one survey at one point in time, and the authors write that they cannot infer causality; people who already sleep badly may also reach for the phone more.
So "no phone before bed" is mostly "no phone in bed". In that survey, the minutes spent on a screen after lying down went with less sleep, not just later sleep.
How long before bed should you stop using your phone?
How long before bed to stop using your phone has no single agreed answer; the advice from sleep organisations runs from 30 minutes to two hours. Cleveland Clinic's Drerup says that "this advice is all over the place", and that most of the research on it has been done in children.
| Source | What it advises |
|---|---|
| American Academy of Sleep Medicine | Turn off all electronics at least 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime |
| NHS | Try not to use phones, tablets or computers for an hour before bed |
| Cleveland Clinic | Tucking devices away an hour or two before bed is a good general rule |
A practical way to choose: start with the time you have to get up, count back the sleep you want, then subtract 30 to 60 minutes. With a 07:00 wake-up and eight hours in bed, lights out is 23:00 and the phone goes away at 22:00 or 22:30. Pick a time you can actually keep on a weeknight rather than an ambitious one. If 30 minutes holds for a week, move it earlier.
Do Night Shift and Do Not Disturb make the phone fine before bed?
Night Shift and Do Not Disturb each handle one of the three reasons, so neither makes an evening of scrolling equal to an evening without the phone. The table shows which part each one touches:
| Tool | What it changes | What it leaves |
|---|---|---|
| Night Shift (Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift) | Shifts the display's colours to the warmer end of the spectrum, on a schedule | The feed, the messages and the time |
| Do Not Disturb or a Sleep Focus | Silences notifications | Anything you open yourself |
| Screen Time Downtime (Settings > Screen Time > Downtime) | Makes most apps unavailable on a schedule | Without Block at Downtime (on the same Downtime screen), only a reminder you can dismiss; with it, a passcode you set yourself |
| Charging the phone in another room | Removes the phone from reach | Needs another alarm clock |
| Bedline | Pauses the apps, categories and websites you choose from your phone-down time until your wake-up | Pausing apps needs a Premium plan; you can turn it off |
Apple's Night Shift page says the feature shifts the colours of the display to the warmer end of the spectrum, from sunset to sunrise by default. A 2015 study by Gringras and colleagues found that an iPhone, an iPad and a backlit e-reader all gave off light rich in the short, blue wavelengths, and that a "sleep-aware" app reduced it. Less blue light does not change what is on the screen, which is the part Drerup says matters most.
Downtime is closer to a phone-down time. Apple's iOS 26 guide says that during downtime only calls, messages and apps you allow are available, and that when Block at Downtime is off, you see a reminder and can keep using the apps. Downtime vs App Limits explains which Screen Time setting suits a night.
How do you actually stop using your phone before bed?
You stop using your phone before bed most easily by deciding the details during the day, so the evening holds no new decisions:
- Set a phone-down time as a clock time, counted back from your wake-up as above.
- Give the phone's night jobs to something else. A separate alarm clock, a paper book, an audiobook started earlier with a sleep timer.
- Charge the phone away from the bed, across the room or in another one. The NHS also suggests putting the phone on silent and face down.
- Put the replacement where the phone used to lie. What to do instead of scrolling before bed lists options by what the feed was doing for you.
- Have the apps you scroll pause at that time, with Downtime set to block or with an app, so you aren't deciding again at 23:30.
- Decide what to do if you can't sleep. The NHS suggests that if you are still awake after around 20 minutes, you get up, sit somewhere comfortable and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy.
Where does Bedline fit?
Bedline handles step 5 for the apps you lose your evenings to, and leaves the rest of the phone alone. You set your Bedline, the time the phone goes down, and your wake-up, with different weekend hours if you like, or take the times Bedline suggests from your Apple Health sleep. You choose the apps, categories such as Social, and websites to pause, and Apple's Screen Time pauses them every night until your wake-up. Pausing apps needs a Premium plan.
Bedline does not take the phone out of the bedroom, and it does not decide your time for you. An optional reminder tells you to wind down before your Bedline, and in the last hour the Tonight screen offers "I'm heading to bed" to start the night early. If you need an app, an emergency unlock you hold to confirm opens the apps for 30 to 120 minutes, as you set, and they pause again after. You set the plan up yourself, so you can also switch it off; the point is that doing so takes deliberate steps rather than a thumb on autopilot.
For choosing the time itself, how to set a phone curfew as an adult goes further.
FAQ
Is it bad to use your phone before bed?
Using a phone in bed is linked with shorter sleep in a large survey, which cannot show cause and effect. In a 2025 survey of Norwegian students, each extra hour of screen use after going to bed was associated with 59% higher odds of insomnia symptoms and 24 minutes less sleep. Cleveland Clinic's sleep medicine expert says what you look at probably matters more than the light.
How long before bed should I stop looking at my phone?
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests at least 30 minutes to an hour, the NHS an hour, and Cleveland Clinic an hour or two. Start with the time you can keep every night and move it earlier once it holds.
Does Night Shift stop the phone from affecting sleep?
Night Shift only warms the colours of the screen, as Apple describes it. It does not change the content, the notifications or the time spent on the phone. Cleveland Clinic's sleep medicine expert says the content probably has more impact than the blue light.
Is it okay to listen to music or a podcast on my phone before bed?
Listening to calming music is one of the NHS's suggestions for falling asleep. Start the audio before your phone-down time with a sleep timer, then put the phone face down out of reach. The risk is picking it up to choose the next track and finding the feed.
What should I do if I can't sleep without my phone?
The NHS suggests that if you are still awake after around 20 minutes, you get up, sit somewhere comfortable and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy, then go back to bed. Reaching for the phone at that point brings the feed back into the bed. If sleeplessness goes on, talk to a doctor.