Being Mindful Can Help Individuals Refrain From Engaging in Harmful Phone Behaviors.

Most of the time, smartphones are kept nearby, and it seems more like a reflex than a decision to grab them. 

According to researchers, those who practice mindfulness in daily life are more likely to strike a healthy balance between their phone use and other activities.

In a comprehensive study, psychologists combined 61 earlier investigations that monitored over 38,000 individuals in 11 nations.

People who were more mindful in their daily lives were less likely to claim that their phone use was negatively impacting their sleep, job, or relationships.

Problematic smartphone use

Dr. Susan Holtzman, a health psychologist at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan campus in Kelowna, Canada, oversaw the study.

Her study looks at the connection between common practices and coping methods, such as smartphone usage, and mental and physical well-being.

Smartphones can help us, link us, and even manage our payments. However, researchers warn about problematic smartphone use (PSU), which includes compulsive checking habits that interfere with daily life and continue despite attempts to reduce it.

Mindfulness and phone risks today

A recent estimate claims that there are around 4.9 billion smartphone users around the globe.

Even if just a small percentage of those users believe that their phone is interfering with their sleep, study, or conversation, it still represents a significant public health issue.

The word nomophobia refers to the anxiety that arises when people are unable to connect to their phones due to a lost signal or a dead battery.

People who report this pattern also tend to describe sleep disruption, neck or shoulder discomfort, and difficulty concentrating on school or job assignments.

Mindfulness can change phone habits

The continuous, unbiased awareness of the present moment is known as mindfulness. With brief surveys about everyday attention, it was frequently measured in the studies examined by Dr. Holtzman.

People are instructed to observe their thoughts, emotions, and sensations during mindfulness practice and allow them to pass through without responding.

Prior research on attention and health indicates that mindful individuals are more likely to have a steady attitude and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Additionally, they appear less prone to rumination, which is the obsessive, repetitive negative thought that revolves around the same concerns.

The trend is being observed by separate teams, and a meta-analysis of 29 studies reveals an inverse correlation between mindfulness ratings and problematic phone use.

A stronger sense of control

Dr. Holtzman and her team looked at all available research through 2024 that evaluated both mindfulness and problematic smartphone usage using six research databases.

In total, the study comprised 38,802 individuals from 61 distinct samples, the majority of whom were young adults. The team calculated a single figure representing strength by combining the data, finding an effect size close to r = -0.30.

According to some of the research, those who are more mindful have less symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as a greater sense of control over their everyday decisions.

Some research associated mindfulness with a reduction in experiential avoidance, which is the act of trying to suppress unpleasant ideas and emotions. This was accompanied by more responsible phone use.

How attention shifts

The findings fit with what many phone users report. Checking often starts as a quick way to handle boredom or stress, and gradually turns into the response whenever there is a free moment.

Phones and apps are carefully tuned to reward fast taps and swipes, which keeps attention locked to the screen with alerts, badges, and endless scroll. 

Mindfulness training does not remove those designs, but it can help people notice urges as they appear and give themselves a few seconds to decide whether to follow them.

Dr. Holtzman points out that this small pause can be enough to let an urge crest and pass, rather than pulling the person into another long scroll session. 

Over time, repeatedly choosing values like sleep, focus, or face to face conversation instead of the next notification can slowly reshape phone habits.

Mindfulness and healthier phone use

Dr. Holtzman recommends experiments, such as pausing before unlocking the phone and stating why you chose it, for those who want to try out concepts in everyday situations.

Additionally, she promotes a phone audit, in which users decide which apps support their priorities, set restrictions, rearrange icons, and remove the ones that are generally a waste of time.

In one experiment, college students' problematic smartphone ratings decreased and their self-control increased after a 30-minute mindfulness exercise.

This outcome indicates that even a little bit of directed practice can help people feel less compelled by notifications and more able to use their phones consciously.

For some, the crucial step is just to ask a calm question before each check: is this trip motivated by a genuine need, or is it just the firing of a habit loop once more?

That mild curiosity about attention may foster healthier digital habits over days and weeks without forcing anybody to completely abandon their phone.

The journal publishes the research. Mindfulness.

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