New Harvard-linked research shows a week away from social media measurably reduces anxiety and depression, but individual responses tell a more complicated story
The case for stepping away from social media just got stronger. A study published in JAMA Network Open found that young adults who completed a one-week social media detox saw anxiety symptoms fall by 16.1%, depression drop by 24.8%, and insomnia decrease by 14.5%. Those are not small numbers for a seven-day experiment.
The research was led by John Torous, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the digital psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. What set this study apart was its methodology. Rather than asking participants to recall their habits, researchers tracked real-time phone data, cutting out the guesswork that has quietly undermined earlier work in this space.
For two weeks before the detox, participants averaged roughly two hours of social media use per day. During the detox week, that figure dropped to about 30 minutes. Total screen time, however, stayed about the same. People did not use their phones less. They just stopped reaching for Instagram and Snapchat.
Photo Credits: Shutterstock / Thrive Studios ID
Why the detox effect is not the same for everyone
Here is where it gets more complicated. The averages look clean, but the individual stories do not. Torous and his team found that participants had widely different reactions to cutting back. Some people who reported high levels of depression improved noticeably. Others felt no change at all. Some walked more and filled their time with physical activity. Others simply swapped one app for another.
That variation is not a flaw in the findings. It is the finding. A blanket recommendation to put down the phone ignores how differently each person relates to social media. For some, these platforms fuel anxiety and unhealthy comparison. For others, they provide genuine connection that offline life does not offer. Torous describes the one-week detox as a blunt instrument for exactly this reason. It works on average, but average obscures the person.
Social media, dopamine and the brain’s reward system
Part of what makes these platforms so hard to leave comes down to brain chemistry. Social media activates the brain’s reward centre, triggering dopamine release in a pattern similar to what happens with food or social interaction. The more a person scrolls, the more the brain associates that behaviour with feeling good, and the loop becomes self-reinforcing.
A 2020 systematic review linked social media use to higher rates of anxiety and depression, with social comparison driving much of the damage. Watching curated, filtered versions of other people’s lives tends to distort how people measure their own. Separate research published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology found that cutting social media to 30 minutes a day produced meaningful improvements in overall well-being. Sleep is another casualty. Studies show that people who use social media before bed are more likely to experience insomnia and shorter sleep on weeknights.
What personalized detox intervention could look like
Torous is not finished. This study was Phase 1, designed to establish a baseline and prove that phone data can track behavioural changes accurately in real time. The next phase moves toward something more targeted. If the data shows that social media is affecting a specific person’s sleep, the intervention focuses on sleep rather than screen time broadly. If patterns suggest anxiety spikes around certain content, the approach shifts to match that.
That thinking puts this research at odds with broader policy conversations. Several states, including Massachusetts, have pushed to ban phones in schools entirely. Torous does not dismiss those efforts, but argues that better measurement tools make it possible to do more than simply remove access.
The goal, as researchers frame it, is not abstinence. It is a relationship with these platforms that a person chooses deliberately, rather than one that happens by default. That distinction may be small, but for a generation that has grown up online, it matters quite a bit.
What did the people of the early modern period, including the Tudors, believe about sleep?
If you ever have trouble sleeping – as many people do – you might consider seeking the assistance of a book. Or perhaps, a new mattress, or fancy blackout curtains.
One method you likely haven’t tried is putting a cold apple on your head. But, centuries ago, the Tudors and other people of early modern Britain believed that this was an effective sleeping aid.
The apple on the head is only one part of a much broader – and deeper – school of thought about how to achieve the best sleep. People in Tudor and early modern Britain treated good rest as something that needed conscious preparation, discipline and care. And, the fact is, much of their thinking still has value today.
“I do think we can learn about sleep hygiene from the early modern period,” says Professor Sasha Handley, “partly because sleep was a much more prominent concern in day-to-day life.”
“People’s sleeping habits were part of an interconnected ecosystem of lifestyle habits that were meant to keep the body healthy and prevent illness,” Handley explains. “Sleep was one of six lifestyle behaviours widely identified by physicians, medical practitioners, and ordinary people as things they had to take regular care of in order to stay healthy in the long term.”
“It’s part of this preventative healthcare culture that we don’t really have anymore,” Handley says.
As well as dictating the value of sleep, this culture also shaped where people slept, what they slept on, what they ate before bed, and what they did when they woke in the night.
No such thing as a modern bedroom
One of the biggest differences from modern life is spatial.
“The word ‘bedroom’ is not used terribly often,” Handley notes. That is partly because beds were not usually confined to a room used only for sleep.
“Depending on how rich or poor you were, you were likely to be sleeping in a room that had multiple purposes,” Handley says. In early modern households, especially modest ones, rooms often had several functions. A bed might stand in a space used for cooking, eating, working and receiving visitors. Many households consisted of just one or two rooms, making separation of activities impractical.
Meanwhile, “those with more money could afford to separate out a particular room for sleep,” Handley explains.
That meant experiences varied sharply across the social scale. A servant lying close to the floor in a busy household space certainly didn’t experience sleep in the same way as a noblewoman in a carefully arranged chamber.
Naturally then, beds themselves became markers of wealth, hierarchy and respectability.
“The wealthiest often had very lavish beds,” Handley says. “One of the most interesting features is how many mattresses they had. The Duchess of Lauderdale, for example, had six mattresses stacked on her bed.”
This was partly about comfort, but not only that. Height itself signalled importance. “It was generally accepted that the higher your bed was off the floor, the more important you were. Beds lower to the floor were associated with illness from damp and with lower social status.”
That social meaning is especially clear in the truckle bed. “A truckle bed, for example, was used by servants,” Handley explains. It was a low bed on wheels, often stored beneath a master’s larger bed and pulled out at night so a servant could remain nearby if needed.
“These beds were very low to the floor,” she says, “and the word ‘truckling’ means to be subservient.”
A bedroom inside the wealthy Paycocke’s House in Essex, built around 1500, reflects the restrained domestic interiors of Tudor England. With sturdy timber beams, sparse furnishings, and a modest bed, such spaces shows how sleep was woven into everyday life. (Photo by Getty Images)
Herbs, scent and the problem of temperature
Early modern sleepers also paid close attention to the sensory world around the bed.
“A mattress stuffed with straw and hops was surprisingly comfortable,” Handley says. Hops were commonly used in pillows because “their scent was thought to help relaxation at bedtime”. Hops were also used in brewing beer, and their mild sedative properties were widely noted in early modern herbals.
“There is also evidence of various herbs being used to calm the body and, crucially, to cool it down.”
That concern with temperature is particularly notable, because it aligns with one of the core tenants of modern sleep science: a slight drop in body temperature helps prepare the body for sleep.
To encourage that cooling effect, people used scented plants and flowers in the sleeping space. “They used rose petals to scent bedchambers and plants believed to promote a cooling atmosphere. Water lilies, for example, were popular.”
Also aligning with modern sleep science was the idea that achieving good sleep began hours before actually being in bed.
“People were advised to have a light supper and to avoid rich foods such as heavy beef or sweet wines, which were thought to disrupt sleep,” Handley says.
Again, the reasoning came from medical ideas about digestion and bodily balance. Heavy or rich foods were believed to burden the body and interfere with rest. Digestion was thought to generate internal heat, which could disturb the balance of humours and make sleep more difficult. But the basic principle – that late, rich eating can make sleep harder – does resonate with modern advice.
Prayer, fear and waking in the night
The broader lesson is that sleep was treated as something to consciously prepare for, and that involved getting into bed in a state of calm.
“Some of the most important bedtime practices involved meditation,” Handley explains. For most people, this meant prayer. Religious practice structured much of daily life in Tudor England, and the night was often seen as a spiritually vulnerable time.
This was usually done quietly, either kneeling at the bedside or once in bed. People might read a familiar prayer, devise their own words, or contemplate religious images in their surroundings.
“Bedtime prayer was important because people were genuinely concerned about what might happen during the night,” Handley says. “They believed the Devil’s power was strongest at night and sought protection through prayer, asking God to keep them safe until morning.”
When sleep was disrupted, early modern people reached for strategies that still sound familiar.
“There is also evidence of poor sleep during periods of stress, financial worry, or when there were young children in the household,” Handley says. “In that sense, they were not very different from us.”
People kept books at the bedside, including the Book of Common Prayer, which contained prayers for waking in the night. They might also use prayer beads or other repetitive devotional practices to help to calm the mind.
This is still good advice today. However some Tudor tips were rooted in medical theories that modern science certainly wouldn’t support.
Handley notes that “some sources recommend placing a cold apple on the head to help induce sleep”, because apples were considered soporific.
Nevertheless, early modern sleep culture got several things broadly right.
It recognised that routine, body temperature, the sleeping environment, and the state of mind all could impact one’s sleep for better and worse. Modern sleep science might explain the reasoning behind these points differently, but would concur with many of the conclusions.
From taking a warm shower to deep breathing, these are the habits experts recommend for sleeping when you have anticipatory anxiety
Whenever I experience a bout of insomnia, more often than not it's down to feeling worried about the next day. It can be incredibly hard to know how to sleep when my mind is racing with this anticipatory anxiety. But what is it and is there a way around this sleep stumbling block?
"Anticipatory anxiety is when we have anxiety about the next day, so we sleep poorly as we don't feel safe and relaxed," explains James Wilson, a sleep practitioner at Bensons for Beds. According to the sleep expert, embracing things that help me unwind can combat this gnawing worry I sometimes feel about the next day, which has a detrimental impact on my sleep.
To discover the best ways to relax my racing thoughts, I asked Wilson and Hannah Shore, Head of Sleep Science at Mattress Online, how to sleep when I'm worried about the next day. Here are the expert's top seven tips that worked for me...
Key takeaways: At a glance
Anticipatory anxiety is the anxiety you feel when worried about the next day, and it can affect sleep due to stress releasing wake-inducing hormones such as cortisol.
Whether it's a job interview or the prospect of tackling a difficult task, comfort watching your favourite TV shows can help foster a feeling of safety and help you fall asleep.
Listening to a relaxing podcast, re-reading a favourite book, making a to-do list and practicing mediation or deep breathing can help you unwind.
Practice good sleep hygiene by avoiding overthinking about sleep, not consuming caffeine six hours before bedtime, and eating earlier in the evening.
How anticipatory anxiety affects my sleep
For as long as I can remember, I've had trouble sleeping whenever I was worried about the following day.
Knowing that I had to wake up hours earlier than usual meant that I would stare at my clock and try to calculate how sleep I could get if I fell asleep right there and then.
Whenever I had a big day ahead that required a lot of energy and mental sharpness, I would convince myself that everything would fall apart if I didn't get enough sleep — but scolding myself into sleeping only made my insomnia worse.
The sleep practitioner said that stress-induced insomnia is an "inherent survival instinct" that has remained with us.
"Anticipatory anxiety is a sign of potential threat so we remain switched on," the sleep practitioner explains.
How to sleep when you're worried about the next day
Okay, so how exactly am I supposed to sleep when my brain mistakes my anticipatory anxiety over a Monday morning meeting for the threat of a sabre-toothed tiger hunting me down?
Plenty, apparently. Here are the seven expert-approved tips that helped me turn off my racing thoughts and fall asleep fast...
1. Don't stress about sleep
(Image credit: Getty Images)
I decided to put the best advice first: remember that the next day won't be a complete and utter disaster if you don't get enough sleep tonight. Sleep isn't that important.
Yes, it goes against every single rule that I (along with every single doctor and sleep expert) have been preaching, but if you already know sleep underpins your overall health and wellbeing, you can afford to break it.
"If we change the conversation with ourselves to ‘Yes, I might struggle to sleep tonight, but I am brilliant at being tired. I am world-class at being tired and I’ve done some amazing things whilst exhausted', then we start to relax more about tomorrow," says Wilson.
Wilson explains that this sleep mantra works by addressing the underlying anxiety more than trying quick fixes and prescriptive advice.
"One of the most powerful tools I have as a sleep coach for overcoming this anxiety is working with people on changing their mindset around who they are as a sleeper," he shares.
2. Switch off racing thoughts
(Image credit: Getty)
If you can't convince yourself that getting enough sleep is no big deal, then Shore suggests you may want to take a shot at mindfulness practices.
"You need to find a way for your brain to ‘switch off’ those thoughts, which is easier said than done, but for some people, meditation and even cognitive shuffling can help," she suggests.
While I've always been told that watching TV before bed can cause insomnia, there's nothing wrong with some light, comforting entertainment to help you unwind and quieten anxious thoughts. In fact, research has found watching familiar shows can help ease nighttime anxiety.
"Some may find they need the help of the TV, a podcast, or music to help them stop thinking about the following day," reveals Shore.
Wilson agrees and says that "listening to something that makes you feel safe" can promote sleep.
"A good example would be an audio novel you have read before, this way you know what’s going to happen so you don’t need to focus on it too much, but the familiar story is comforting, therefore helping to drop your heart rate," he suggests.
4. Make a to-do list
(Image credit: Marcos Paulo Prado on Unsplash)
Science has proven that writing a to-do list for the next day can help you fall asleep an average of nine minutes faster than writing about the day you've already had. And this habit of highly organized people could help ease anticipatory anxiety.
According to Shore, a to-do list helps empty "a head full of things that we didn’t do today, that you must try to remember to do tomorrow".
"By keeping a list, you can ensure you don’t forget these things, as they often pop into your head in the middle of the night and keep you awake," she recommends.
She also suggest keeping the list on your nightstand, so you can jot anything that comes to you in the middle of the night.
5. Breathe in, breathe out
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Breathwork is one of the most popular techniques for reducing, but you can also use breathing exercises for sleep. Methods such as box breathing have been found to improve sleep quality, while the 4-7-8 technique is a scientifically-backed method to reduce anxiety.
Wilson even says that a simple breathe-in, breathe out exercise can calm your anxieties.
"Inhale deeply and exhale slowly, you’ll find your heart rate slows and you'll starting to yawn quicker than you think," says the sleep practitioner.
6. Go to bed only when you feel tired
Once, I tried forcing myself to go to bed at 10pm to try to clock up some extra sleep, and you know what happened? It actually made it harder to fall asleep. Studies have shown that going to bed at a time that conflicts with your predominant sleep-wake schedule (known as your chronotype) can actually increase insomnia symptoms.
"Have a targeted sleep time that’s in line with your body’s natural rhythm, so for example, don’t go to bed early if you’ve got an early start as this just gives you more time to worry and only go to bed when you feel sleepy," says Wilson.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
7. Take a warm bath or shower
And last but not least: make a warm relaxing bath or two-minute shower an integral step in your nighttime routine. (Lucky for me, as I hate morning showers.)
Research even suggests that a warm shower or two before bedtime can help you unwind and fall asleep faster, with a water temperature of 104 °F and 108 °F shown to be optimal for sleep.
"Focus on doing things that are going to drop your heart rate and drop your core temperature; try a warm bath or shower, as when we step out of the bath shower, our core temperature drops," suggest Wilson.
5 things that can make anticipatory anxiety worse
1. Caffeine
(Image credit: Getty Images)
When I got my first coffee machine, I went a little too overboard and guzzling cappuccinos to help me gain energy during a difficult week. That night, not only was I stressed about a deadline but I was also up all night with an increased heart rate that just wouldn't let me sleep.
Anything that makes you feel more anxious will increase the impact of next day anxiety and for some people, it could be caffeine," Wilson warns.
He adds that you can drink your morning coffee, but skip your evening java.
"Ensure your last caffeinated drink is at a time that isn’t going to make you struggle to get to sleep later, " advises the sleep coach.
While everyone's caffeine sensitivity is different, research recommends ditching caffeine at least six hours before bed to limit its effects on sleep.
2. Watching or reading something new
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Have you ever said to you'd watch just one episode to help you relax before bed, only to find yourself in the midst of an all-night Netflix marathon?
"Consuming new content makes us more alert, whether it's looking at work emails or watching something engrossing on TV," warns Wilson.
The sleep practitioner warns to stay away from thrillers or horror movies or anything that's "likely to raise our heart rate or keep us thinking."
3. Clock watching
(Image credit: Getty Images)
One major factor of insomnia that I'm definitely guilty of whenever I'm nervous about the big day ahead is clock watching.
Slipping and out of sleep is a normal part of our sleep architecture; it's so common that we barely remember it. So, when we do wake up and check our phone or alarm clock for the time, it just alerts us to how little time we have to get enough rest.
"If we’re constantly clock watching to see how many hours sleep we’ll get before our alarm goes off, we’ll never drop off," warns Wilson.
4. Eating too close to bedtime
My sleep was transformed when I tried intermittent fasting. This blue-zone approved method of front-loading calories helped me fall asleep faster and showed me how much sleep is influenced by the time of our dinner.
In fact, one study found that those who ate meals later in the day were more likely to take longer to fall asleep.
"Anything that elevates your core body temperature, such as eating large meals late at night, can reduce sleep quality and increase stress and anxiety," says Shore.
5. Working late at night
(Image credit: Getty Images)
It can be tempting to check your email before bed, but working too late into the night can make us feel more alert.
"Increased stressors like extra work affects the production of hormones," says Shore.
According to the sleep scientist, this causes "wake-promoting" hormones such as cortisol to be released, and "sleep-promoting" hormones like melatonin to be suppressed.
"Melatonin cannot work properly, leaving you wide awake," she explains.
To limit the stress of work affecting your sleep latency and quality, follow to the 10-3-2-1-0 rule and ditch work emails two hours before bed.
The bottom line...
"To fall asleep and stay asleep when we have anticipatory anxiety, we need to get our bodies to calm down and relax so the right chemicals can be produced," advises Shore.
To help us relax in the evenings, don't set a strict goal for how much sleep you need. and try low-energy, calming activities such as watching or listening to something comforting or familiar, try sleep techniques such as mediation or deep breathing, or take a warm shower or bath.
Standard sleep hygiene practices also apply, such as not eating too close to bed, ditching caffeine six hours before bedtime, and avoiding overthinking or consuming exciting or stressful content in the evening.
