Shel Silverstein
I feel a bit like Runny Babbit this morning. I’ve had a bit of insomnia for several nights now – mostly due to the kids’ transition back to school, a sick puppy, and the stress of family life. I’ve broken my own rule… I have been checking my email, Facebook, sometimes even Twitter, multiple times each night.
I keep my phone at the bedside because it’s a reliable alarm clock – regardless of potential power outages, my phone has consistently sung me awake for years. I put it on airplane mode because I find that do not disturb doesn’t work in all cases, and I don’t want the beeping or buzzing interfering with the little bit of sleep I get. When I started freelancing for a client in a different time zone, my sleep habits changed. Or were ruined. You’d think having to type in a password, then turn the airplane mode off would be enough to make me stop to consider the possible consequences to my health. I’m now checking email around midnight and at 3am fairly consistently. This morning, I was unable to fall back to sleep, and actually ended up getting up to start my day. NOT GOOD!
According to a news release today, I am not alone. It seems that many of us struggle with the feeling of being always-on. We have become so attached to these mobile devices that we don’t feel whole without them. 
- Image from sfgate.com
I am NOT in this age group and my smartphone is not this snuggly! After so many lost hours of sleep this week, I have the sunken, black eyes of a zombie and can hardly speak in complete sentences. And so, I’m ousting my smartphone from the bedroom. I’ll buy a digital alarm clock with back-up batteries and will not look back. Turns out, there are things that can actually wait until morning, but sleep is rarely one of them! Socialmediaphobe needs a nap…
