The Link Between Technology and Nervous System Dysregulation
Season 4- Episode 42
In this episode, Lauren dives into the profound impact of our hyper-connection to technology on our nervous system and explores how we can reclaim regulation through a digital detox. Constant notifications, endless scrolling, and exposure to screens can fragment focus, disrupt sleep, and increase stress hormones, all of which negatively impact mental health. Lauren highlights that recognizing signs like trouble concentrating, increased anxiety, sleep issues, and a sense of disconnection are key indicators that it’s time to reevaluate our digital habits.
If you haven't already, check out Five Ives to see how strategies like this can be applied to adults, especially in the workplace. Five Ives works with staff in high burnout jobs to help them incorporate regulation strategies into their daily routines.
Try at Home Tip: Create a micro morning routine.
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Transcript:
“I'm a night recorder now. This is fun. If you’ve been listening lately I shared that I started recording the video of the audio. I used to only ever do the audio.Now I'm like, you know, it'd be helpful to, like, put this on YouTube and reach more people and help more people. But I don't. I feel like you get. It's almost like you're in my home. You are in my home. Like, if you see these videos, you're like, I feel like I'm right there with Lauren because you. Because you kind of are now, but you get me raw and real, as per usual.”
“We didn't really edit much of these, but don't get dolled up, don't sit in a fancy studio, don't have any real fancy equipment. I have a nice mic, but that was like a perk of a credit card that more or less paid for it. But anywho, the funny thing is, for you all, you can't see these videos yet because the podcast is going to switch over to 5ives because behavior hub morphed into 5ives with a partner and we shifted the work we're doing a little bit. And the 5ives YouTube channel hasn't, like, fully launched yet. So these videos aren't going out, but the audio is still going out through the Behavior Hub. So you get my voice, but you don't get the image. Soon you'll have the image video, not even image. You'll get the video to go with with the audio. It'll be real fun. It really will be like we're sitting down together.”
“Okay, let's get focused, because the topic I'm talking about is being not focused. And why are we not focused? And why are we feeling so burnt out and stressed out and overwhelmed?”
“One of the huge, huge reasons for this is the link between technology, devices, media, just technology, and how it really dysregulates the nervous system. Nervous system. I'm on this nervous system kick right now. And so in this episode, I want to talk about the connection between technology, our nervous system, and you're gonna hate me for this one. And why a digital detox might be the right thing for you right now.”
“Okay, but hear me out. We live in a world that is hyper connected. And when I say hyper connected, we're like digitally connected, but we're not actually connecting. So we're actually incredibly disconnected as a society. But we are hyper connected to the digital world. Things like social media, emails, notifications, going off, endless streaming options, technology in some beautiful ways is a part of just about every aspect of our lives. And that's good and bad.”
“The thing that I think about where it's like bad is it feels like eons go. But not so long ago, we used to be like in a line waiting for a coffee. And you might like, engage with someone that's in the line because you don't have anything else to do. You're just sitting there waiting in line instead. Or, or even you might even like, look around the coffee house, coffee space, coffee cafe, coffee bar, coffee place, and just notice things. So, AKA you're like practicing mindfulness and you're staying present. You know what we're doing instead?”
“We're getting out our phones. You know people are doing. When they're at stoplights, they're getting out
their phones, you know people are doing. When they're traveling, they're on their phones. So it's interesting because it's causing us to be a lot more disconnected.”
“So today's episode talked about the impact of basically constant screen time and how it's impacting our mental and physical health, really how it's dysregulating our autonomic nervous system. And then how do we control, not even control, how do we, like, reclaim our regulation through a digital detox? Doesn't sound like something anyone probably wants to do it. It's such a valuable commitment. Let me just like, listen through and hear me out and, well, we'll see how you feel at the end.”
“Okay. So one of the struggles I have with social is all these notifications or even email. Like, I. I have like six email accounts because I have, you know, a property here and a property there. And I have this business and I do this consulting work and I work at the university. And they all have separate emails. And then like different contractors use. Like, some use teams, some use Google. There are constantly notifications going off. So I have all my notifications. My phone's turned off. I have every single app notification turned off. The only thing that comes through is texts and calls. So the first thing I would say is turn off your notifications unless you absolutely need them on. Because all those pinging constantly throughout the day is just, it's. It's stressful and there are some pretty negative psychological effects of them. But basically what's happening in the nervous system is when all these notifications and pings come through, our nervous system perceives this as a constant demand for our attention. And when it's constantly causing you to give it your attention, it puts you in an overstimulated state. And that keeps you in a sometimes low, maybe high, but typically lower level of like a fight flight. You're not even aware of it, but your nervous system is dysregulated from all the pings, all the overstimulation.”
“So here, here's like why that matters. Psychological impacts of this, Negative psychological impacts. One, increased stress, increased stress hormones. So these pings and this constant need for the attention and the overstimulation causes your cortisol level to go up. And when your body's cortisol levels go up too high and it starts to do negative things to, to your body, it changes your hormones, it can breed anxiety, it creates exhaustion because your body's trying to get yourself back to homeostasis. It brings more acid into the body, more acid in the body, like does a whole bunch of negative things for your health. Also it really fragments your focus because it's like you might be in a mindful moment or you might be in a flow state and it's like ping, ping, ping, ping. And it breaks the flow state. So you essentially end up all day long. We're constantly multitasking. And multitasking is not a good thing because what really happens is you're not multitasking, you're task switching. And the more you switch tasks, the harder it is to get in flow, the harder it is to stay in flow. And the more disregulated you become. Your brain stays in a state of hypervigilance. And when your body and your nervous system is like hypervigilance, hypervigilance, hyper vigilance, you practice it all the time. By keeping on your notifications and constantly checking your apps, it becomes your stable state. So it makes it really hard for you to be able to rest and relax. And that's a problem because we need to rest and relax as we're human beings. It also causes sleep disruption.”
“So blue light. Oh, funny, I was saying it's blue light. Blocker, blocker. Sunglasses or sunglasses, like just glasses. And some people are like, this is a little too woo woo, like it's science. Blue light from the screens, from our devices, from all of them, TVs included, suppresses melatonin production, which really affects our sleep cycles, our circadian rhythm. And it makes it harder to get more restful sleep, especially if you're watching TV before you go to bed. So that's why so many people are supplementing right now with melatonin, especially giving their kids melatonin. Maybe the answer is not the band aid of melatonin, but just the detox from the screen.”
“Okay, but it's not even just the nervous system. Like, if you really go into this, it's, it's well beyond the nervous system. Like, it starts to impact our mental health because social in particular, constantly fostering comparison. Like, there are people on there that I used to really love, that I used to follow that were like, tall people that were hikers. And I'm like, you know what I like unfollow these people. Because what I'm realizing is they're posting all these clothes, they have this new hiking gear, these trips are going on, and I get, like, envy. Like, even I'm conscious. Like, subconscious. I'm like, I'm happy with my life. Oh, but that looks cool. That looks fun. Or I should buy that or Emerson should have this. And it's just information overload. And I'm like, disconnected from the present and what I have and, and my gratitude of self. And now I'm comparing myself to someone else and what I should have or who I should be. And the spiral is ignited. So this is really important. It's hard. It's really hard. A digital detox is so hard because we've gotten so regulated to being connected to this digital world.”
“So let's, let's just ask ourselves, how do we know if we are really needing a digital detox? Like, what are signs?”
“Well, one, if you can't concentrate or you're troubling, having trouble concentrating, you're finding hard to focus. You're constantly, like, checking your phone or pinging back and forth, or you're distracted by the notifications, or you're not getting anything done, or it feels like it takes you forever to get something done. That's, that's a pretty big sign.”
“Another one's increased anxiety. Like, for example, how many of you have misplaced your phone and experienced extreme anxiety the moment you can't find your phone? I mean, I've done it. I'm there. I'm not speaking this episode. Like, it is preaching to myself as well. I mean, I'm pretty good with social and devices and shows, but I've, I have moments of slip and for like, for example, I'm coming out of a season of, like, watching a lot of TV documentaries mostly, but still not helpful. So it increases your anxiety because you're constantly like, where's my phone? What I need to check. What am I missing? Am I keeping up date? Am I keeping, you know, am I missing anything? Like this fomo not good we are already an over anxious society. Then you've got sleep problems. Why? Because we're watching TV late at night, we're using our phones in bed, we're scrolling blue light exposure. Can't fall asleep, can't get into rem. Circadian rhythm's messed up, not shocking, right? Which causes fatigue. You feel mentally drained. You have mentally drained even if you get enough sleep. Because if you're staying on your device all day or frequently throughout the day, this prolonged screen time is causing your body physically and mentally to exhaust into a state of over fatigue. And as I said in the beginning of this episode, like we, we are always on our devices. If we're in a line at a coffee shop. Coffee shop. That's what I was looking for. I couldn't. Coffee bar, coffee place, coffee house, coffee shop. That's the word I was looking for. Okay, we're disconnected. We're not connecting with people. We're not having as many meaning meaningful interactions.”
“Here's like a true story of like a failure of this. Last night. It's now Sunday. I went out with a friend last night on a Saturday night. I haven't seen her in a while. I was really excited to see her. I had a bit of a fiasco idea with her with property. So all these texts flinging around and messages coming through, I'm trying to stay so present for her and I really was looking forward to, to connecting with her. And she had some emotional based things to discuss with me and I had similar ones discuss with her. And I kept getting interrupted by these pings and I had a really hard time not answering them because it was not an emergency emergency. It was a bit of an emergency but it kept disrupting the flow of our conversation. And then even when she was speaking, I was thinking about the messengers. I wasn't checking. So there's the anxiety, there's the disconnection, there's just like that whole evening was disrupted. At least not the whole evening. The first half, the first half of the evening was disrupted and I felt so bad and I, I was frustrated myself, frustrated with the situation. All this to say it caused me to be less connected to her and I meant to meet with her, to connect with her.”
“Okay, so what would a digital detox look like? Because now you might know, okay, I probably need one. I'm going through some of the things that Lauren's going through. We both need detoxes. What do we do? Because for me some of the resistance is like, well I don't. If I don't I'm not my device or I'm not watching a show or I'm. What am I going to do?”
“Okay, first of all, like block the time. Like is your detox going to be just one hour at first? Is it going to be one day? Is it going to be a weekend? Is it going to be a whole week? I don't even want any more that can go a whole week without a device. And I would love to, to get there again. Not there yet. So what does it look like time wise, Set aside specific time to detox.
“Also think about like the worst times of the day to be on tech. Like first thing in the morning, last thing at night, maybe start with night. Can you reduce the amount of time that you are on your device at night? Can you reduce like how late into the evening you're on it? So that's like another potential option here. And then can you put any parameters, boundaries, limits around your exposure, like checking email notifications, how much TV you watch, how much time you'll scroll on social media? These are just a couple things that we could put some boundaries around to create more consistent, ongoing, more permanent digital detoxing. But the goal is to create space, whether an hour, a day, a weekend or a week where you can do things that reset you, that regulate your nervous system, like hikes, trail runs, working out meals with friends, connecting with family, being present with your kids, cooking a meal, going to an apple orchard, going to a wellness spa, I don't know, reading. Like there are so many other things that we could do. Like make a list of all the things that you could do to take place and then put your boundaries in place, map it out, think about how beyond just like your, your hour, day, weekend, whatever of detox, how are you going to keep this detox going with focusing on like morning, evening time and scroll time and show length time and then get started.”
“So create your boundary and your, your initial boundary is like how much time am I giving to this first detox? And where, like where my devices turned off are they put somewhere and just being really intentional about like turning it over, turning it on silent because if it dings, you're gonna hear it, you're gonna be thinking about, it's gonna cause anxiety and then mental fatigue. And then like kind of pre plan, like if you're, if you're knowing you're not gonna be able to check emails or something like that, check them before you go into your detox and think about okay, what am I gonna like kind of pre plan what am I gonna do during that time? Because if I don't have my devices and I don't know what I'm gonna do, I'm more likely to go back to my devices too early. And then once you've done it, sit with it, reflect on it, how did it go?”
“And then from there, really think about, how can you make this more of an ongoing routine? Like, how can you use technology intentionally? How can you create a screen free morning or evening routine? How can you engage in more mindful or present activities, like reading physical books? I love audiobooks, but I really love physical books so much more. I like to highlight them and write in them and note taken, interact with them. And some fun books would be good too. Or you could garden or go to a paint class or a pottery class, or make a meal or go to a cooking class, anything. There are lots of free things too. And then just think about your blue light exposure. How can you reduce that or limit that or even just take breaks from it? Like, just go off your screen and go look outside into like the horizon, a panoramic view. Just take your eyes and put it in nature of the same nature around you. It's a little hard to do if you're in the city, but maybe.”
“Okay to wrap up the show. Think about, how is this impacting your health? Do I need a digital detox?What does it look like? Design it, implement it, reflect on it. Think about how this could be an ongoing practice. Maybe not. It could be continued digital detoxes, but also, like, how can I make this a part of my everyday life?”
“Here is your try it at home tip. Create a morning routine. I kind of hate morning routines. I hate, like, the stigma around morning routines. But hear me out. The, like, micro morning routine that I've tried to adopt, and this is really hard cause I have a toddler, so it's like, often disrupted. But I'm trying to do it with him here. It's like time in scripture, prayer and journaling. And sometimes it's like five to 10 minutes. But I just read a little bit of a devotional. I read the scripture, I reflect and write my responses, and I go through this pray sequence. That's it. But I want him to see me doing that for two reasons. One, I want him to share my faith. Two, I want him to know that, like, that, like, first thing in the morning, this, like, quiet time is so important. I want you to see me utilizing this routine. So I get a cup of coffee, turn on the heated blanket, at least in the winter and I go through that routine 5, 10 next 15 minutes. It has helped my day go a lot smoother. It's helped me to feel less anxious starting the day less rushed. Nervous system regulation first thing in the morning. It is a beautiful way to start the morning. I'm really happy with it. It's just really simple routine and it includes no devices except for the Bible app. I do play a little bit of a devotional in there outside of reading my physical devotional, but I do have physical things that I use. That means technology is very limited during those times. But I'm not checking email, not checking social, not doing anything else.”
“Okay, that is it for today's episode of Returning to Us podcast. Don't forget our Try it at home tip, which is create like a micro morning routine. And if you need more support in the areas of stress, trauma, behavior in the brain, or you need help with the nervous system stuff. 5 I's F I V E I V E S It's an organization I created with my partner Jessica Doring, and we provide trauma care supports, but also like regulation and company culture and burnout prevention supports and services for organizations that serve people, people. So we help people who help people, police, medical education, nonprofits and come in and run programming to get individuals, leaders and then the whole collective in a state of healthier functioning. We move you through the five eyes, essentially what we learn to help you. We teach you how to learn to regulate your nervous system and then we think like organizational nervous system. Like where's the organization's state of regulation will help you get that into a place you want it to be so people aren't leaving their jobs.”
“Okay, until next episode. I'm Lauren Spiegelmeier and thanks for joining me.”