New neuroscience says yours probably should too

Jeff Bezos's morning routine has long included the one-hour rule. New neuroscience says yours probably should too.

Many CEOs, like Apple's Tim Cook and Pepsi's Indra Nooyi, boast about their hardcore morning routines. Not Jeff Bezos. The Amazon founder is famous for dedicating the first hours of the day to … puttering?

Bezos's no-screen morning routine

Back in 2018, Bezos laid out his usual morning routine in a speech at the Economic Club of Washington. It includes reading the paper, drinking coffee, and having breakfast with his family. You know what his"puttering time" does not include? Looking at his phone. In a recent interview with People, Bezos's fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, confirmed her partner remains committed to slow mornings, adding,"We don't get on our phones. That's one of the rules." Why has Bezos banned screen time for the first hour after waking? It's likely that his one-hour rule is partly about personal preference. We're all wired differently when it comes to our fluctuating energy levels and tolerance for stimulation, and experts insist we do better when our routines honor our particular rhythms rather than fighting them. But Bezos claims his puttering doesn't just help him enjoy life more. In the same 2018 speech, he insisted his slow-burn, phone-free mornings improve his energy levels and decision-making abilities all day long. The latest neuroscience suggests he's on to something with this claim. Less online mornings lead to smarter, healthier days, and new research strongly suggests more of us should steal Bezos's one-hour rule.

This is your brain on too much screen time

"If you scrolled on your phone in bed for an hour just one morning, the negative impacts would be minimal. But if it becomes a habit, day after day, month after month, this behavior can take a toll," Maris Loeffler, of the Stanford Lifestyle Medicine Program, explains in a recent blog post from the program. Phones are a ubiquitous part of modern life. You can't escape them, and you can very easily overdo it. The Stanford post rounds up a host of fairly horrifying recent findings from neuroscience about what happens when you spend too much time in front of a screen. They include:

• One study showing increased use of screens among adults may harm learning, memory, and mental health.
• Another study showing that adults who watched TV for five hours or more per day had an increased risk of developing brain-related diseases like dementia or Parkinson's.
• Yet more studies showing that adults who engage in two or more hours of screen time per day outside work have lower gray matter volume in their brains. Adding to the negative effects on the brain, excessive screen time has also been linked to eye problems, poor sleep, and back pain. All in all, it's a pretty gloomy picture of what our collective phone obsession is doing to our minds and bodies. "Passive screen time is like eating sugar but for your brain. It 'tastes' good, and you want it now, but you're not actually feeding yourself. You're not giving your brain any nutrition," Loeffler sums up.

What to do in the morning instead of looking at your phone

What is her and other experts' top recommendation to help us all keep our screen use within healthy limits? None other than Bezos's one-hour rule. "Stanford Lifestyle Medicine experts recommend no screen time for the first hour of the day," the blog post bluntly recommends, offering a menu of other activities that are better for your brain during the first hour or your day (I've added links to more information about the benefits of each):

• Exercise
• Call a friend or family member
• Prepare a healthy breakfast
• Meditate
• Listen to music
• Create a gratitude list
• Read a book
• Spend time outside and get morning light "How do you want your day's energy and mood to start?" Loeffler asks."Intentionally implementing a morning routine that reflects lifestyle medicine choices instead of screen time sets a positive tone for the day and supports brain health and cognitive enhancement." Which would come as no surprise to Jeff Bezos. He's been implementing neuroscience's best practices for a brain-boosting morning routine for years. Maybe more of us should put down our phones in the morning and do the same. This post originally appeared on Inc.com. Books and authors mentioned have affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission if you click and go on to buy them.