Internet Addiction Messing with Your Sleep?

Technology is evolving at breakneck speed. As you read this, you hold in the palm of your hands more power than NASA used to launch Apollo 11. However, the most crucial skills we are going to need as we get more tech-savvy is the ability to use technology mindfully and avoid internet addiction.

When I’m browsing the internet late at night, I’m often just following the path of least resistance. That is, I keep browsing because it takes less effort and anxiety than to make the decision to stop until the anxiety from knowing I’ll be sleep deprived in the morning outweighs the anxiety from stopping.

Here’s a little nudge I’ve set up for myself after slipping back into using the internet late at night when I should really be sleeping instead.

9 Steps to Stop Internet addiction from Interfering with your Sleep

For Windows 10:

Step 1: Open Task Scheduler.

Step 2: Click Create Basic Task on the right.

Step 3: Type Shutdown as the task name and click Next.

Step 4: Choose when the task starts from Daily, Weekly, Monthly, One time, When the computer starts, When I log on and When a specific event is logged, and then hit Next.

Step 5: Set the start time when you want your computer to shutdown and click Next

Step 6: Select Start a program and tap Next.

Step 7: Click the Browse button, open Disk C, then windows, then System32, then search for shutdown.exe and hit Open.

Step 8: Enter –s as the argument and click Next. (this is optional)

Step 9: Click Finish to complete the task creation and bring the task into effect.

Adding this simple nudge means I no longer have to wait for a trigger to initiate the “go to bed” habit .

It also means it now takes more effort to continue surfing than it does to stop since in order to continue wasting time surfing I have to wait for the computer to shut down, then start up again, which is quite boring.

If you want to learn about the signs and symptoms of smartphone and Internet addiction and the ways to break free of the habit, you can read more here.

At the end of the day, technology is just a tool. It can work for or against us. It is up to us to decide which direction to take.

Do you have any trick or tips for curbing internet addiction? Please share with us on the comment section below. We love hearing from you 🙂

Further reading: Video Game Addiction – The Case for Mobile Gaming