Keep these five points in mind for healthy use of mobile phones to continue improving your lifestyle and making it more convenient, without affecting your health and wellbeing.
- Care of thumb and fingers: Continuous swiping/texting with a stiff semi-bent posture of the thumb or finger for many hours daily, can lead to a long-term inflexible and painful ‘texting thumb/finger.’ Stretch the thumb or finger backwards as far as possible, hold for 5 seconds and release after every few minutes of swiping or texting.
- Care of neck: Do a simple neck stretch exercise by gradually bending the head backwards as far as the neck can go, holding for 5 seconds, and gradually coming back to the erect position. This should be done every 15-20 minutes of using mobile phones in the head-down position. Also, consider using stands/holders compatible with an erect posture for healthy use of mobile phones.
- Mealtime break: Do not use mobile phones during meals either for surfing, texting, or speaking. Do not hurry through meals just to rush back to look at the mobile phone
- Evening use and Sleep: After dusk, switch the screen settings to ‘blue light filter on’ mode. While sleeping, keep the mobile phone screen down at more than an arm’s length away from the bed. Do not charge mobiles at the bedside while sleeping. and never speak on the mobile phone while it is charging.
- Mobile free time: Daily set a ‘cell-phone free time’ of at least 1 hour which is spent in relaxing activities, hobbies and with friends and family. Encourage children to spend more cell-phone free hours especially indulging in outdoor play.
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Laptop and Computer use – solutions to reduce adverse health impact