The impact can vary depending on individual habits and the nature of the content you engage with on your phone.

Here's a general overview of what occurs:

When you check your phone and find something interesting or rewarding, your brain releases dopamine.

This neurotransmitter is associated with pleasure, motivation, and addiction.

The potential for unexpected rewards (e.g., a liked social media post, a funny meme, or a message from a friend) keeps you coming back to your phone.

Picking up your phone immediately upon waking can fragment your attention.

This constant switching of attention between different apps, messages, and information can negatively affect your focus and ability to concentrate on tasks throughout the day.

The blue light emitted by your phone's screen can suppress the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep.

This can disrupt your sleep schedule and make it harder to fall asleep at night.

If your morning phone use involves checking work-related emails, news updates, or stressful messages, it can lead to increased stress and anxiety.

Constant connectivity can create a feeling of always being "on" and may prevent you from fully disconnecting from work or personal stressors.

Scrolling through social media can lead to social comparison, where you compare your life and achievements to those of others.

This can contribute to feelings of inadequacy, jealousy, and even lowered self-esteem.

Picking up your phone immediately can lead to time being wasted on digital activities, potentially reducing the time available for a healthy morning routine, such as exercise, mindfulness, or a nutritious breakfast.

It's essential to be mindful of your phone use in the morning and consider the potential impacts on your mental and emotional well-being.

Some people find it helpful to establish phone-free morning routines to start the day with more intention and focus.

You’re Skipping Vital Stages of Waking Up

When you think about the process of waking up in the morning, it might not seem like much. You go from sleeping to being awake, and that’s it. However, Healium reports on the neuroscience behind sleep and the stages of waking up that says otherwise.

The process of waking up involves multiple different brain waves, and they all serve an important function for your overall well-being. According to Jay Rai at Forbes, an empowerment psychologist, when you first wake up, your brain transitions from delta waves—which are resting and regenerative—to theta waves that are important for making memories, learning, and processing information.

From there, theta waves slowly transition into alpha waves, which are known to boost creativity and even lessen depression symptoms. Alpha waves then transition into beta waves, and these beta waves are what your brain typically stays in throughout the day as you go to work, interact with people, and perform household chores or cooking tasks.

If you check your phone immediately when you wake up in the morning, you’re forcing your brain to skip from delta waves to beta waves. This means your brain misses out on those vitally important alpha and theta brain waves, which can set you up for a slew of negative side effects throughout your day.