Remember when Madonna and Guy Ritchie were sort of in trouble after a magazine article revealed that they both slept with their blackberries under the pillow "in case they remembered something they had to do and needed to jot it down on the phone"?
It seemed that after the divorce was announced a lot of critics were blaming (among others) Madonna's bed time rituals.
I have had my iPhone for 6 months now and suddenly realised this week that I was close to suffering a mild addiction to it. We all know the iPhone is not really a phone at all. Once you start making trips down the aisles of the iTunes application store you can be in serious trouble.
Aside from the usual suspects Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email, and RSS Readers here are some of the applications that have 'kept' my iPhone in the bedroom.
Binaural beat soundtracks - these are supposed to help you relax and sleep. I found I wasn't using them until the very end of my surfing, tweeting, facebooking and emailing though. Sure they sent me to sleep but some times it was 1.30am and I probably would have gone to sleep anyway! NB: I will write another post about the binaural applications when I have more experiences to report. It's an interesting area.
e-Books - The curious tale of Benjamin Buttons and many more - hmmmm...
Gratitude Journal - this is a great program and I"ve been fairly religious at filling it out. The only problem is that if I was leaving it to late at night I of course would NEED to take the phone to bed to write my five gratitude items.
Sudoku - crazy thing to do when you are trying to get to sleep - waking up the brain!
Alarm Clock - one excuse... yes that I need the phone by the bed so I can set the nice alarms on it and know what time it is should I be woken in the middle of the night.
This is the plan. As per Leo Babauta's "The Power of Less" I'm going to set limits. The iPhone is staying out of the bedroom. This week I will buy an old -school analogue alarm clock. One that doesn't glow in the dark and keep me awake!
After this week also as recommended by Leo I'm going to reserve the evenings for personal and family time. David Pogue, Technology Writer for the New York Times said "There are 15,000 applications on the iTunes store - how am I ever going to find time to review them all!"This was possibly the thought that tipped me over the edge enough to claim back my sleep. There will always be infinite sites, applications and ideas to read, review and state opinions about. If I try to do it all I will probably DIE!
I am now filling out my gratitude journal BEFORE 10pm (should I set an alarm on the phone to remind me to do that?) I'm reading a REAL book to unwind if necessary.
Really I do love my iPhone but enough is enough. I have to sleep and so does it otherwise we will burn out! Do you take yours to bed and is it having an effect on your sleeping routine?
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