Dr Lollie Mancey, an anthropologist & futurist, delivered a keynote presentation at the 2025 Pendulum Summit in Dublin’s Convention Centre, in which she talked about her extensive research on the effect of mobile phone usage before bed and in the morning.
She spoke to Highland Radio News this morning.
According to Dr Mancey, the first 20 minutes of your day should be phone free, as it disrupts the dream state, when the brain is emerging from when we wake up. This is the period where the best brain waves occur, and when the brain is most creative and capable of problem solving. When an external stimuli, such as a phone is introduced, this phase is interrupted.
Dr Mancey also encourages people to use old fashioned alarm clocks, to avoiding seeking out your phone to turn off an alarm.
Dr Mancey also claims that we’ve adopted a mindset that our phones are a source of safety, and that when we’re without it, it can trigger our fight or flight, which she compares to the fear of wild beasts such as tigers in the early days of our evolution.
She also says how it can be extremely difficult to go to sleep after you’ve just been on your phone, as the brain is going from a state of alertness to a low-alert environment. She advises that there should be a ‘softer landing’ such as reading a book or listening to music before you sleep.
Dr Mancey commented on how Gen Z are beginning to move away from their mobile phones, and how some young people are even starting to adopt old-fashioned flip phones.
Listen to the full interview here:
Audio Player
