Digital Disconnection and Our Dreams
Experience Rather Than Suffer
I scrolled aimlessly, read a few notifications, and before I even got out of bed, my brain was already saturated. I felt both tired and restless, for no apparent reason.
That's when I decided to try a real digital detox. Not by deleting everything overnight (which I find a bit extreme, but it works for some), but by experimenting with concrete solutions to see if it actually made a difference...
Reduce your screen time
1. Create a “Smooth” Phone
I started by removing anything that caused me to check my phone for no reason.
✅ Delete the most addictive apps (or hide them in a remote folder).
✅ Turn off all notifications except those that are really useful (calls, important messages).
➜ Result: Fewer impulses to check my phone for no reason, and above all, much less wasted time.
On Android and iPhone, you'll find a digital health section that also allows you to set limits or see what's most addictive for you.
Personally, it was Instagram and its "shorts." I could open my phone up to 20 times an hour and spend more than 21 hours a week on it...
2. Airplane Mode = Reflex
Instead of keeping my phone active 24/7, I decided to test airplane mode at key times:
✅ 1 hour after waking up (to avoid mental overload in the morning).
✅ During times when I really wanted to concentrate (work, reading, sports).
➜ Result: Far fewer distractions and an unexpected sense of calm. Same reflex in the evening. Replaced the TV with a red light and a book. This also helps avoid a lot of spam and regains freedom of intention with our environment.
3. Set limits on yourself
Rather than trying to be reasonable ( spoiler: it doesn't work ), I set strict rules:
🚫 No phone in bed
🚫 No phone during meals (before and after too...)
🚫 No phone during walks
To compensate, I replaced these moments with something else:
✅ Music, podcasts and more
✅ A red light for the evening
➜ Result: More presence, less stress, and simple moments that become pleasant again.
4. Give yourself days off
✅ Choose at least one day without screens.
✅ Leaving your phone turned off or even flat or at the bottom of a drawer (and feeling naked all day)
➜ Result: At first, a little lack… then a surprising feeling of freedom.
The problem is broader...
- The phone is not the problem, it's our usage that is.
- Setting specific rules works much better than just "being careful."
Ultimately, reducing your screen time isn't about depriving yourself. It's simply giving yourself the opportunity to be somewhere else, fully, without distraction. And that feels pretty good.
What I found most shocking about this was the mental clarity that quickly returns when you give yourself space to think, as Alan Watts said: it's the value of nothing, of silence and empty spaces.
Having this privilege means giving yourself back the choice of freedom: to be active or to rest, but by choice and not by obligation. Giving yourself a balance that also allows you to refocus on what really matters to you... Creating this void allows you to understand what was fueling it in the first place and to return to the essential.
On the theme of rest...
Dream, again and again
Personally, I never remember dreams (I only have nightmares), and when I do, it's often an infinite repetition... You probably know what I'm talking about, the kind of dream where you fall over and over again... But every now and then, elements come back to me. And these are usually things related to my waking thoughts (for me, it's code 🧑💻 or a 👩) .
The deliberate choice to explore our nights can transform our days. Research on sleep and dreams shows that they are not mere interludes in our daily lives, but essential pillars of our memory, creativity, and motivation.
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Questioning our last thoughts from the previous day
Patrick McNamara's The Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams sheds light on how the thoughts and emotions we experience before sleep influence our dreams. What we think before falling asleep shapes not only our dream activity, but also how we approach the following day. -
Ask yourself the reasons for your motivations
When we wake up, our first thoughts are often unconscious, driven by our sleep and dreams. Alice Robb's Why We Dream explains that dreams help us simulate different realities and test scenarios that influence our motivation and decision-making. -
Remembering or trying to remember our dreams
According to Matthew Walker's Why We Sleep , dreaming plays a key role in memory consolidation and emotional processing.
Our nights are not just a rest; they are an ongoing dialogue with our consciousness. Choosing to pay attention to them enriches our days with new clarity, sharper intuition, and motivation rooted in the very essence of our spirit.
The Science Behind Dream Forgetting
During deep sleep (where most dreams occur), the brain has very low levels of noradrenaline (or norepinephrine) , a neurotransmitter linked to memory and attention. As Matthew Walker explains, this absence makes it difficult to encode dream memories. The brain prioritizes wakefulness and alertness upon waking, reducing the importance of dream memories.
Some studies suggest that focusing too much on dream recall may reduce morning norepinephrine production , making waking more confused and less energetic, but more importantly, we become accustomed to decreasing this production by trying to remember more and more. This creates a vicious cycle where dreams become clearer, but sleep worsens.
Memory and Motivation: Inspiration from the Past
- Our memories serve as internal references to assess our abilities and guide our choices.
- For example, recalling a past success strengthens intrinsic motivation and the belief that the effort is worthwhile. Why We Sleep explains how sleep consolidates these memories, strengthening their impact on our future motivation.
Long Term Motivation
- Emotionally charged memories are more deeply rooted and influence our decisions subconsciously. Failure can create risk aversion , while success can provide positive momentum .
- How we interpret these memories (failure = lesson vs. failure = inability) plays a crucial role in our future motivation.
- Again, the brain is magical, the way we integrate information is not linear or exponential, it is nuanced for each type of person, linked to repetition in good and bad.
My conclusion
Reprogram your perception of failures :
Rather than seeing failure as an obstacle, integrate it as a necessary step, as one point among many in a constantly changing constellation. A connection to hundreds of other independent points, but linked by forces larger than ourselves.
Reprogram your habits:
Our habits shape our perception of the world and condition our reactions to events. Just as our memory can be trained to see failure as a simple step, our habits can be adjusted to better serve our inner balance.
Changing a habit means reconfiguring a neural pathway, transforming an automatic reaction into a conscious choice. This requires repetition, but above all, a deep understanding of what motivates our actions. By gradually modifying our routines—without accepting the simple solution or resorting to self-convincing tactics—we directly influence our approach to life.
The idea is not to force drastic changes, but to introduce micro-changes and personal challenges, in order to shape a reality more in line with our well-being and aspirations.
