Why Your Morning Phone Habit May Be Affecting Your Mental Well-Being

We all wake up early for something—school, work, appointments, or responsibilities. But how often do we wake up with barely enough time to get ready, grab our coffee, and rush into the day? Our mornings can easily begin with a phone in our hand, notifications, emails, and the pressures of everything we need to accomplish.

Start With Enough Sleep

Waking up early doesn't mean sleeping less. Statistics Canada notes that insufficient sleep can affect our productivity, behaviour, relationships, and overall health, and that most adults need approximately 7–9 hours of sleep to feel refreshed.

So the goal isn't to wake up as early as possible. It is to make enough room in our morning to begin the day without rushing—and with God.

Don't Give Your First Moments to Your Phone

Psychology Today points out that immediately checking our phones can deprive us of the opportunity to mentally prepare for the day. Constant information and stimulation can leave us vulnerable to emotional triggers and feelings of dread or overwhelm.

Think about how easily this happens. You wake up, reach for your phone, check one notification, then another, and scroll for “just a few minutes.” Suddenly, you've entered the noise of the world before you've even had a moment to collect your thoughts.

Psychology Today encourages simple ways to delay checking your phone, such as:

Interestingly, this connects with something the Church Fathers have spoken about for centuries: despondency. Often described as a kind of spiritual restlessness or “agitated boredom,” despondency can make us restless, distracted, resistant to prayer and staying attentive to our spiritual life. When we constantly fill every quiet moment with our phones, entertainment, and stimulation, we can become uncomfortable with silence—and prayer can begin to feel like another burden. Suddenly, we find ourselves constantly checking our phone through every task, including prayer.

This is why the beginning of our day matters. Before the world tells us what to think about, we need time to remember what matters.

The Wisdom of the Saints

Pope Shenouda III strongly encouraged Christians not to postpone prayer. He writes

“So for example, when you wake up say to Him, 'Thank You, Lord, that You have kept me safe through the night, and I ask that you keep me safe throughout the day. Give me Your love, and grant me not to sin against You'. Then as you wash your face and and the water pours down your face say to Him, 'Purge me with hyssop; wash me that I become whiter than snow'. Say to Him, 'It is not the cleanliness of the body that is important, but the cleanliness of the spirit. As You have granted me to care for the cleanliness of my body, grant me to care for the cleanliness of my spirit”

What if this became our first thought in the morning? Instead of immediately asking, “What do I have to do today?” we begin with, “Thank You, Lord, for giving me another day.”

Pope Kyrillos VI similarly encouraged Christians and said:

Go to bed early and awake early... when you awake, do not remain in bed.... Start your day worshipping God in prostration twenty or thirty times or as many times as possible, for, among all other virtues undertaken by people, there is none better than this. After that go and wash your face and stand before God and thank him for watching over you this night and keeping you alive until the morning... Read the Holy Bible with care. Give it time, as you do with the newspapers, for the word of God is sweeter than honey.

Evagrius Ponticus also states:

“He who gets up at the last minute may be certain that he will begin his work sullenly and with full dislike. The same holds for the task itself. The one who lets himself be pressed to improper haste, or lets himself be lured to negligence, becomes in the end a victim of despondency.”

He says that you will likely dislike the work of the day and perform it with negligence, which puts you in a cycle of despondency. This can lead to negativity throughout the day, impacting our mental state and possibly the people around us.

How Can We Help?

This is also at the heart of why we created our posters and reflection cards at Rooted in Him. We know life is busy. Not every moment can be an hour of Bible reading or an extended prayer. But that doesn't mean we have to go through the entire day without stopping to turn our hearts toward God.

Sometimes it only takes a moment:

Our hope is that these simple reminders help us slow down, look up, pray, reflect, and remember His Word. Keeping Scripture in front of us allows God's Word to meet us in the middle of our ordinary routines—not only during our formal prayer time.

The Church Fathers understood that the beginning of the day could set the direction for everything that followed. And perhaps their wisdom is more relevant than ever.

In a world where our phones can bring the entire world into our bedrooms before our feet even touch the floor, choosing to pause, pray, and open Scripture is a small but meaningful act of turning toward Christ.

So tonight, don't just set an earlier alarm. Go to bed with the intention of giving God the first part of your day. Perhaps moving your phone outside of your bedroom or out of reach can be the first step. And adding a reflection card to your nightstand might help you make it a habit or adding a poster to your bedroom enabling you to stay focused on Him.

Wake up. Put the phone down. Say a quick prayer. Open His Word. Take a moment to reflect.

And begin your day Rooted in Him.