I'm Italy Moan and this is the Slowdown.

I was reading recently how a cell phone isn't the first thing we should look at in the

morning.

That's especially hard for those of us who use our phones for morning alarms.

But what sleep experts say is that we should keep our phones not only turned off at night,

but in another room altogether.

I have yet to do this, but it makes sense.

How can you turn off when it is always on?

I'm trying to have a different relationship with my phone.

As I travel a lot, my phone is my lifeline to my husband, my family, my best friend

message threads that keep me laughing and saying.

But of course, it's also the place where headlines hit hard and breaking news flashes during

an otherwise quiet moment of solitude or creative contemplation.

What baffles me is how, for the most part, this juxtaposition is how we live.

All the time.

In the same minute, we may have seen a picture of a cat, someone's wedding photo, a terrible

image of war, and an ad for an old-fashioned alarm clock that will undoubtedly help improve

our sleep habits.

This, my friends, seems to cause a sort of wicked whiplash.

No wonder our attachment to our phones feels both obsessive and desperate.

Just last week, I was in a little rock Arkansas airport, flying back to Lexington, Kentucky,

and my phone stopped working for a whole five minutes.

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