The Anti-Doomscrolling Evening Routine for Better Sleep

How does your day typically end? For millions, it ends with the blueish glow of a smartphone, mindlessly scrolling through an infinite feed of news, opinions, and social updates. This habit, often called "doomscrolling," feels like a way to wind down, but it's one of the worst things you can do for your sleep quality and mental health. To truly prepare your mind for rest, you need an evening routine that calms, not agitates. You need an anti-doomscrolling ritual.

Why Your Phone is Wrecking Your Sleep

The science is clear: late-night screen time is detrimental to sleep. First, the blue light emitted by your phone suppresses the production of melatonin, the key hormone that tells your brain it's time to sleep. This can delay the onset of sleep and disrupt your natural circadian rhythm.

Second, the content itself is often the problem. News headlines and social media feeds are frequently designed to provoke a strong emotional response—outrage, anxiety, or envy. This engagement triggers the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, putting your nervous system into a state of high alert. This is the biological opposite of the calm, relaxed state required for deep, restorative sleep.

Swapping Anxious Scrolling for Calming Completion

The solution is to create a deliberate "wind-down" period before bed, and this means replacing your phone with a better activity. We propose swapping your scrolling habit for a 5 or 10-minute Matiks session. This might seem counterintuitive—replacing one screen with another—but the nature of the engagement is fundamentally different.

A Matiks puzzle is an ideal wind-down tool because it's engaging but not agitating. It requires your focus, which pulls your mind away from the real-world anxieties and looping thoughts that can prevent sleep. Unlike the endless, chaotic nature of a news feed, a puzzle is a closed, orderly world with clear rules. Your brain is occupied with a low-stakes, solvable problem.

Furthermore, solving a puzzle provides a powerful feeling of closure and completion. When you find the solution to a tricky problem, your brain gets a satisfying sense of order being restored. This feeling is profoundly calming. It's the psychological opposite of the anxiety and unresolved tension generated by reading about global crises you can't control.

A Matiks session is also a finite activity. It has a clear end point. Unlike a bottomless feed designed to keep you hooked for as long as possible, a puzzle session can be completed in a few minutes, allowing you to set your device aside and transition into a truly restful, tech-free state before you turn out the lights.

Craft a better evening routine. An hour before bed, put your phone on the charger in another room. Make a cup of herbal tea. And spend a few minutes with Matiks to quiet the noise, focus your mind, and give your brain the gentle, orderly closure it needs for a great night's sleep.