Set a screen cutoff time
Pick a consistent hour to put screens away and protect the wind-down window.
Why it works
A defined cutoff converts a vague intention into a concrete cue, which is how behavior change actually sticks. It also reclaims a buffer between stimulation and sleep, letting both arousal and light exposure fall before you try to sleep — addressing displacement and the lights-out transition at once.
How to do it
- Choose a realistic cutoff time you can keep most nights and tie it to an existing cue.
- Move the charger out of the bedroom so the cutoff is enforced by friction, not willpower.
- Have a planned non-screen activity ready so the gap doesn’t pull you back to the phone.
Evidence
Implementation intentions (a specific when/where plan) are among the most robustly supported behavior-change tools, and reducing the device’s availability raises the friction that helps a cutoff hold. (rct)
The behavior-change tooling is well supported; the specific "best" cutoff hour is individual and unstudied as a number.
Sources
- Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006), meta-analysis of implementation intentions, Advances in Experimental Social Psychology
Common mistake
Setting a cutoff but keeping the phone on the nightstand, so willpower has to win every single night — and eventually doesn’t.
Practice this with IX Coach
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More practices for The Digital Sunset
- Dim your evening light
Lower overall light intensity at night — the lever that actually moves your clock.
- Don’t over-rely on blue-light glasses
Treat blue-light-blocking glasses as a weak, optional add-on, not the fix.
- Curb stimulating content before bed
Cut the arousing, attention-grabbing content, not just the screen brightness.
- Keep screens out of the bedroom
Reserve the bed for sleep so the space itself cues winding down.
- Counterbalance with morning light
Pair the evening sunset with bright morning light to keep the clock anchored.