Fully Booked | Start and End the Day With a Book

The past week has been filled with overwhelming and anxiety-inducing news notifications popping up on my phone screen nonstop. From the minute I wake up to the minute I go to bed, I’m delivered another headline I don’t know how to handle. So, I’m getting back into a habit I haven’t been prioritizing recently — reading a book in the morning before checking my phone for the first time, and at night after putting my phone down for the final time. 

Reading books is something I turn to when I’m feeling stressed or anxious because it forces me to think only about the words on the page in front of me. It’s easy to allow thoughts about what’s going on around me to hinder my focus when I start reading, but as the minutes pass, I find myself more concentrated on the story than what I was stressing about. This isn’t a strategy for ignoring what’s going on outside, but rather one for not allowing the emotions surrounding those things to consume me.

Earlier this week, I was lying in my bed around midnight with a pounding headache and my phone and laptop screens illuminating my face when I looked at the time and decided I had to go to bed because I had class the next morning. But those blue lights are great at keeping me from getting tired, so I knew I needed something else to properly wind down. I recently ordered a secondhand copy of Ethan Hawke’s 2021 novel “A Bright Ray of Darkness,” so I grabbed it and read the first chapter before going to bed. 

The next morning, I flipped my phone over after turning off my alarm because I didn’t want to be tempted to check any of the notifications I had received overnight. Then, I made some coffee and read another chapter of the book I started the night before. It’s such a simple action that allows me to start the day with my mind a little less cluttered. 

When I wake up and immediately look at my phone, I’m kind of setting myself up to start my day with a dose of unneeded stress. However, I will say it can take some motivation to do this on a daily basis after spending so many mornings in a row checking my phone right when I wake up. I know this is something I’ll have to keep doing until I don’t even have the desire to check my phone when I wake up.

Reading a physical book as opposed to one online before going to bed has several benefits, but the one I notice most is how much more quickly I fall asleep. When I’m on my phone or laptop up to the minute before I go to bed, my mind is still thinking about what was on the screen and it’s much more difficult to fall asleep. It’s not surprising because blue light suppresses melatonin, so the more time I spend on a screen, the more time I’m going to spend lying in bed unable to fall asleep.

The morning is also a crucial part of the day because the way it’s spent can affect how we feel throughout the day. Waking up and reading a book instead of reaching for my phone puts my mind in a calmer state, and I feel more motivated to take on my responsibilities for the rest of the day. Plus, when I read in the morning, I tend to read more throughout the day because I get invested in the book I’ve started and am pulled more to it than to my phone.

If you’ve also been feeling some difficult emotions over the past week, I encourage you to take a break from your phone and the constant consumption of overwhelming information. Instead, pick up that book you’ve been saying you would read for months but have yet to start. I’ve noticed a decrease in my stress levels in these last few days since implementing reading into my mornings and evenings. And with finals only about a month away, I know that I need to keep this habit in my daily routine because the benefits are too good to let go of.