Why you should take a break from your phone while on vacation?
- You’ll have a stress-free time
- You can catch up on sleep
- You can have more fun with your loved ones
Our smartphones have made different aspects our life better. They have an alarm to wake us up, Google mail to give us reminders, and YouTube tutorials to help us become better at different activities like cooking. However, there is one thing that it cannot improve and that is the quality of a good vacation. In fact, there are some studies that state it makes it worse.
Of course, you can take cute photos at hotels in Alabang with the phone camera, but they don’t seem to have any other benefit. The truth is sometimes your devices make your destination less enjoyable, especially when they remind you of the responsibilities you have to get back to.
If you are going on vacation soon, then take that opportunity to turn off your phone and take a break from it. If the thought of taking a phone break seems scary, then take a look at the reasons that will prove to you why this could make your break more worthwhile.
You’ll have a stress-free time
Vacation should be a time of relaxation and enjoyment.
Sadly, it has become harder for people of this generation to be happy about their vacations because they are never fully living in the moment. Look around and you’ll see many people sitting near the swimming pool while using their smartphones instead of actually going for a swim.
Smartphones have made it harder to enjoy vacations mainly because it reminds you of sources of stress back home. Look at social media, and you see people having more fun than you. You start to wonder why you’re not as happy as them during your break. This fear is so common among everyone has even been given the name FOMO or “Fear of missing out.” Social media has made you more prone to comparing your lives to the lives of others and this tendency has made genuine happiness harder to achieve.
Besides the stress of social comparison, keeping your phones on means people back at home expect you to answer them 24/7. As long as you can be reached, people from work and from your house can always call you about their issues even though they may not concern you.
Turning off your mobile from time to time will allow you the time to breathe and simply enjoy the moment.
You can catch up on sleep
When you arrived at your vacation destination at night, you most likely entered it sleep derived thanks to work. You promised yourself that catching up on sleep would be one of your highest priorities once you lay on your bed. Alas, you can’t seem to drift off and you end up using Facebook and looking at work emails to pass the time. Soon, it’s 2 am and you’re tired but your eyes still aren’t drowsy.
Unfortunately, many working adults are familiar with this situation. So many of us find it hard to just relax and close our eyes—and our smartphones are partly to blame. In this day and age, these electronics have become the leading cause of sleep deprivation.
Phone usage at night makes it difficult to fall asleep primarily because the light coming from the screen makes you more alert. Basically, your brain gets confused by the artificial phone light, thinking it actually comes from the sun; thus, suppresses the body’s secretion of melatonin hormone as a response. This hormone is responsible for telling your body that it is time to sleep.
Knowing all this info, it doesn’t seem worth it to still use your cell phone regularly at night during vacation. It’s understandable to use it during a normal workweek. This small device has most likely become your main source of entertainment. But as you’re staying at a hotel in Alabang for a few days, there’s really no other reason to check on it before you go to sleep.
You can have more fun with your loved ones
Smartphones are notorious for ruining your connections with the people around you. Whenever you go out with your partner, friends, or family, you don’t usually end up enjoying their company because they are usually too busy with their devices to even look at you.
Since people are looking at each other less and less, they also become less comfortable with conversations. So many of your loved ones seem to be more comfortable telling you deep things through text but can barely say any of these things to your face, in real life.
If you plan to bring your loved ones to a fun place, like a hotel in Alabang, then make it worthwhile by focusing on them and not your phone. Try to encourage them to do the same; you can even make a challenge out of it. For instance, whoever fails to resist using their phone, will treat the whole family to brunch.
Take this time to connect with each other. All of you deserve the full attention of your loved ones.
Key Takeaway
The concept of vacation has been ruined because of too much smartphone usage. It can distract you from relaxing because it forces you to remember stressful situations as well as push you to compare yourself with others. Thus, disconnecting while you are on a well-deserved break will make you less stressed, sleep better, and more connected with the people who truly matter.
