A common problem amongst young people these days is lack of energy and drive. Going around the various health forums, you will find hundreds of queries regarding chronic tiredness and an overall lack of motivation and ambition.

It is no coincidence that such problems have become more prominent with the advances in personal entertainment. The biggest culprit here is the smartphone which is responsible for people’s irregular sleep schedules. Moreover, the ease of access to the internet and virtually limitless content also plays a part in why people are so distracted in their lives.

Let’s look at how you can regain your drive and live a goal-oriented life without feeling like a zombie all day.

Your Smartphone Addiction Needs to Go

Let me know if I am wrong, but I am going to make an assumption here. Throughout the day, you use your phone to check your social media and browse around the internet, looking at memes and spending hours on Youtube.

Then, you come back from work/school and feel demotivated to do anything but lay in bed with your phone in front of your face. Then comes the time to sleep, and you find yourself staring at your phone in pitch dark, wondering why you can’t sleep. Right?

Here is what is happening. You have grown addicted to the incredible amounts of stimuli your phone/internet is giving you. It is no wonder that you don’t want to do anything that involves delayed gratification because the reward circuitry in your brain has grown accustomed to the dopamine hit you get from consuming short and effortless stimuli all day.

Moreover, your phone’s display emits blue light, which is associated with daylight. As biological beings, we are hard-wired to carry out laborious work in the daytime and sleep and recover at night. However, due to the blue light emitted by your phone, your mind is tricked into thinking that it is still daytime outside.

Here is how you can fix this.

Firstly, I would advise downloading a blue light filter for your phone. However, many newer phones have this functionality built-in, so you may want to look it up.

Next, invest in a Kindle. When was the last time you read a book and finished a book? Why would you want to read something long and engaging when you can get far more pleasure out of a 5-minute youtube video? This is precisely what is turning you into a zombie.

Here is why I am recommending Kindle. It has an e-ink display that is virtual paper. No, seriously, the display on the Kindle looks like actual paper. Above all, it doesn’t emit blue light and is incredibly easy on the eyes, even in the dark.

So instead of taking your phone to bed, get a kindle and try reading for 20-30 minutes in your bed. However, make sure to put your phone away from your immediate reach. You will how easily you fall asleep. It may take some getting used to, but if you want to kill your smartphone addiction, this is how you do it.

Get a Physical Alarm Clock

The modern smartphone can do pretty much the work of like ten different devices. You have your cameras, music players, notes, radio, alarm, and so many other things that you would have had to buy dedicated devices for in the past. However, while this is a great convenience, it is also a curse.

We have grown so used to our smartphones and rely so heavily on them that we cannot bear the thought of putting them away even at night. You probably tell yourself that you need your smartphone for the alarm, so you put it close to your bed. However, what ends up happening is that sooner or later, you reach for your phone and the next thing you know, you are wide awake, and it’s 3 in the morning.

The solution to this is pretty simple. First, get a physical alarm clock. Yes, the old school one where you set the time manually, and it rings like the world will end. However, the important thing is that you keep your phone away from your bed. 

Why?

Well, for one, you don’t want your phone to be a distraction when you want to sleep. Also, putting the alarm clock at a distance will make you get up from your bed when It rings in the morning, and you would be less likely to go back to sleep.

The truth of the matter is, most people today are not sleeping well. We are constantly sleep-deprived, and our hormones are a mess. Most of our problems related to tiredness and lack of drive can be attributed to lack of sleep in some way. Therefore, fixing your sleep schedule should be your priority.

Coffee is messing up your sleep.

Duh, of course, it is. After all, that’s the very purpose of drinking coffee, right, to thwart off sleep? Well, I am not talking about the odd cup of joe now and then when you want to pull an allnighter to get that assignment done.

I am talking about the over-reliance on coffee to get you through the day, which has detrimental effects even when you sleep at night. You see, the caffeine content in coffee stays in your system for days. We used to think that coffee works instantly and its effects ease off in a few hours. But this is not true. Instead, the caffeine stays in your body for quite a bit longer and ends up messing up your sleep duration and quality.

I know quitting coffee is not an easy thing to do. However, make sure that, at the very least, you don’t drink coffee after 2 pm. Yes, using coffee to get the day going is fine, but drinking multiple cups a day is not. Limiting your consumption to 2 pm will minimize the effects it has later in the night. You will sleep for longer and more profound. Try it out.

The Darker, the Better

Nope, I am not talking about coffee now but your room. Multiple studies have shown that the darker your room is, the better your overall sleep. So try to let as little light into your room as you can. The best way to achieve this is to invest in some ‘blackout’ curtains. These are thicker curtains that are specially made to block as much light as possible.

If you cannot afford the curtains, a great alternative is a cheap sleeping mask. Get one from your local pharmacy and make sure it fits you comfortably. These things are so practical when it comes to blocking light; you will be surprised.

The Pilot’s Strategy 

This rose to popularity reasonably recently, and it has to do with how pilots go to sleep on command. The jury is still out on whether it works consistently or not, but I have tried it, and honestly, it does work pretty often.

Here is how you do it. When you lay in bed, close your eyes and become mindful of the muscles in your face, arms, legs and all over the body. Now, try to relax your muscles bit by bit all over your body, including the jaw, the thighs, the arms and the back. It should feel as if you have become heavier all of a sudden, and you are sinking into the mattress with every breath.

When you achieve this state of relaxation, start imagining that you are lying under the sun on a beech under a cloudy and blue sky. Next, imagine that the waves are sporadically hitting the shore while you observe the clouds in the sky. For whatever reason, this image works coupled with the relaxed state, and you are very likely to doze off.

Also, keep in mind that it helps when your room is colder than usual. Research has shown that 19 Degrees Celcius is the most optimal temperature for falling asleep. So try to get the temperature of your room as close to that number as you, and use a nice thick blanket to cover up.