Why We Moved the Charger

Of everything we changed, the one with the largest gap between effort and effect was moving a phone charger from the bedside table to the hallway.

It cost nothing. It took four seconds. We resisted it for about a year.

The objection

Ours was the alarm. If the phone isn't beside the bed, what wakes you? Followed quickly by: what if someone needs me?

The first was solved by an alarm clock, which felt like a ridiculous purchase in 2026 and stopped feeling ridiculous within a week. The second was mostly a story we were telling ourselves. Nobody had needed us at 3am in years.

What actually changed

Not the falling asleep. That part we'd already fixed with the lights.

What changed was the middle of the night. Everyone surfaces briefly a few times a night — it's normal, and usually you don't remember it. With a phone at arm's reach, one of those brief surfacings turns into picking it up, and a bright screen at 3am converts a two-minute wake into a forty-minute one. Then you remember it, and you file the night as bad.

Take the phone out of reach and those wakings stay forgettable, which is what they're supposed to be.

We didn't sleep longer. We just stopped interrupting ourselves.

The other effect

The morning changed too, without us planning it. When the phone is in the hallway you have to physically get up to reach it, and by the time you have, you're standing, and the curtains are right there.

The first thing you see becomes the window instead of a notification. We've written about why that matters in Circadian Rhythm, but the short version is that light in the morning is the single most useful thing you can give your body clock — and it's much easier to get when you're already on your feet.

If you try one thing this week

Not a purchase. Just move the charger to another room and buy the cheapest alarm clock you can find.

Give it a fortnight. It's the least impressive advice on this website and one of the two or three that actually work.