The Digital Detox You Need and Why the Offline Wellness Movement is a Game-Changer
- Brainz Magazine
- Apr 6
- 10 min read
Written by Jemma Blythe, Life Coach
Jemma Blythe is a qualified Life Coach based in the UK, known for empowering women who have been through trauma. She is the founder of Living Imperfectly Perfect Coaching founded early in 2024.
In today’s hyper-connected world, the constant notifications on digital devices have left many feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. This is where the Offline Wellness Movement—a growing trend encouraging people to disconnect from technology allowing them to reconnect with themselves and ground in the present. This article explores the powerful benefits of unplugging, from improved mental and physical health to more meaningful relationships, and offers practical steps to join the movement. Whether you're looking to reduce stress, improve sleep, or simply enjoy more “real-world” moments, a digital detox could be the wellness game-changer you need.
"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you." — Anne Lamott.
What is the offline wellness movement and why does it matter?
The growing popularity of the ‘Offline Wellness Movement’, shows the ever-increasing demand across the world for a slower life without the constant notifications people are surrounded by due to the increasing hyper-connectivity of the world.
Going offline gives many people the chance to have more life experiences, where their phones are often either locked away or discouraged to promote a mentally healthier lifestyle with a more freeing attitude. Screen time in 2025 is at an all-time high with a worldwide average of individuals spending 6 hours and 45 minutes on a screen. This is why the ‘Offline Wellness Movement’ has a place in today's society.
With the excessive amounts of screen time increasing, this has understandably increased the concerns about the impact on mental and physical wellness across the globe. The movement's sole purpose is to allow people to disconnect and reconnect to decrease the likelihood of the following three conditions: digital burnout, decreased focus and irregular sleeping patterns because each of these conditions if left, can have a detrimental impact on a person's life.
Since 2020 digital detoxes have grown in popularity, whether that’s through people staying off their devices for 24 hours or going on full retreats, where mindful eating, yoga, meditation and walks are encouraged more to help the people who go on those retreats to reconnect with themselves and have the chance to try and experience new things. People are noticing a growing need to distance themselves from their mobile devices. For example, a study conducted in 2024 at the University of Arizona found that at least 77% of their undergraduate students also found the need to limit their mobile device usage.
All of this explains why the ‘Offline Wellness Movement’ is needed and is growing in popularity as it advocates for the intentional disconnection from our mobile devices, instead of something people feel as though they are forced to do.
The shocking effects of too much screen time
Screen time, the analytics that everyone is curious about but somehow too ashamed to check daily. However, with the digital age of today and the fact that screen time has become an integral part of everyday life, many questions have arisen about the impacts that spending hours on a screen might have.
“In the United States 41% of teenagers aged between 13 and 18 reported spending over 8 hours daily on screens.”
Physical health impacts
Vision problems
Nearsightedness or Myopia can occur in people who spend a lot of time on a screen, with the risk of this developing increasing by each hour they choose to be on a screen. For example, a study published in the JAMA Network Open found that the risk of developing Myopia can increase by 21% for each additional hour, but children who spend more than four hours on a screen are particularly vulnerable.
Obesity
Sedentary behaviour linked to spending hours on screens can impact how at risk someone is of obesity as well. Recent research indicates that children who spend two or more hours on screens a day are at 42% greater risk of obesity.
Mental health impacts
Insomnia
This is due to the blue light that is produced by the screens we use daily, which signals to our brain that it’s time to wake up, therefore increasing the likelihood that someone who spends the majority of time on a screen could develop insomnia.
Anxiety and depression
Irritability is also increased due to the lack of sleep produced by spending increasing amounts of time on screens. The lack of sleep can also, in addition to insomnia cause anxiety and depression to develop as well due to the circadian rhythm that we all have being impacted due to the amount of screen time.
Cognitive health impacts
Attention and focus
Screentime has previously been linked to impacts on focus and concentration, particularly within adolescents and children who have prolonged access to screens both at home and within an educational setting.
The science-backed benefits of unplugging
Different benefits can come from intentionally unplugging from our devices, more commonly known and referred to as going on a digital detox has been linked to lower levels of anxiety and depression due to fewer hours of screen time.
Below are some studies that have shown how a digital detox may be helpful with a reduction in anxiety and depression, improved sleep patterns, enhanced concentration, increased physical activity, and strengthened relationships.
When it comes to reducing anxiety and depression, a study was conducted by Unplugwell which showed in a 2025 survey that the rates of anxiety and depression linked to social media usage have risen by almost 30% since 2023. Again this proves just how much of an impact doomscrolling has on our brains without most of us taking any notice. A campaign called ‘Phone Free February’ was also launched and the results that showed the people who took part experienced feeling more mindful and reduced stress levels. It’s worth noting here that shorter breaks from our phones have been proven to reduce stress and promote a more mindful lifestyle too.
Implementing a digital detox just for one hour before sleeping and an hour before waking could be just what the mind and body need too, as a study has shown that going on our phones just before we go to sleep can further disturb our sleep patterns and therefore can cause a more fitful sleep. So, if you want a more enhanced sleep pattern and get that full night’s sleep your body longs for, then avoiding your phone at night and first thing in the morning might be for you.
Reducing the distractions of having notifications going every five seconds has also been shown to boost not only our concentration but also productivity due to not being tempted to grab our phone every five seconds and to also get out of the habit of checking our phone even when it hasn’t made a noise. In addition to this studies have also shown that a drop of up to 20% can occur in our daily productivity when we are interrupted by digital notifications.
An increase in physical activity has also been shown to be a further improvement when taking the time to make more digital detox intervals within our days, as then we are more inclined to do something more mindful like, taking walks, practising yoga or other methods of exercise that normally get forgotten when we feel beholden to our phones regularly.
Furthermore, when we haven’t got phones glued to our hands 24/7 it promotes healthier connections with the people we have around us because we have no option but to build up our face-to-face communication instead of typing to people behind our phones. This should be the number one reason to leave our phones to one side, as technology is there all the time, whereas the people we surround ourselves with might not always be there sadly.
5 ways to kickstart your offline wellness
1. Schedule time without tech
Take notes of the times when you don’t need to have your phone with you and keep those as your designated phone-free times so that you have more time for yourself throughout the day and therefore more time connected to the people and space around you.
2. Make use of social media limits
Most Social Media apps and sites have a setting where, when you’ve spent over a certain amount of time on them, they automatically close, or your phone may even have a setting which makes the app close after you’ve spent an allotted amount of time on there throughout the day. So, it may be a good suggestion to set these to a reasonable amount of time and stick to it to set yourself limits and help to keep you to a healthy routine.
3. Start offline activities
Offline activities are crucial to making sure you have time away from your phone, where you aren’t even thinking about checking your phone, because you’ll be so busy without it! Many people take up gardening, see friends, and go to the cinema or theatre. So, it might be an idea to make notes of what you like to do without your phone and then go ahead and make sure you’ve got some of those things scheduled.
4. Make rooms that are free from tech
Making a room thats free from technical things initially may sound ridiculously hard to do, but what if you kept your bedroom free from technology and then you’ve tackled the detox first thing in a morning and last thing at night too!
Another thing you could do is make a note of your tech-free hours throughout the day, then see if you can plan a room to be tech-free around those hours consistently.
5. Engage in offline mindfulness
Take time to appreciate the space, people and time around you by actually taking notice of the small things you might otherwise have missed if you were glued to your phone all of the time. This is why if you attend a technical detox retreat, they include a lot of meditation and walks because it gets you to almost practise gratitude without you realising it.
Combatting the fear of missing out
Being in a hyperconnected world means that people have developed something more commonly known as the Fear Of Missing Out or FOMO, leading most people to believe that when they aren’t connected by their devices they are missing out on something, which feeds into the habit of needlessly checking our phones even when they don’t notify us of any messages. Whereas, the Offline Wellness movement gets people to consider the Joy Of Missing Out or as it’s more commonly known JOMO. Getting us to have a more balanced relationship with technology, as we set boundaries for the people in our lives, the offline wellness movement aims to get us to think about doing the same thing with the technology in our lives as well.
For example, curating our consumption of digital accounts you follow on Social Media, by unfollowing those who you know are going to give you FOMO while following those who promote JOMO. That way, when you do check social media, it will feel a lot healthier than when you used to check Social Media and most of the accounts you followed made you feel like you were missing out on something, therefore making you want to check your phone more.
Another way to combat the FOMO that the Offline Wellness Movement is encouraging people to think about is practising gratitude for all the offline, small things people wouldn’t otherwise notice if they were on their phones 24/7. The way this works is, when you take time out from your phone, take notice or write down if you can five things you are grateful for that you might have missed noticing if you were on your phone.
In short, the more joy you can create for yourself offline and online on Social Media by curating who you follow and who you don’t, then the more relaxed and less frustrated you will feel when you are accessing content online.
How companies are embracing the offline wellness movement
With the growing popularity of offline wellness, companies are also growing in their support of encouraging their employees to take breaks from their technology, whether that’s by increasing wellness sessions by getting professionals to deliver massages, meditation or yoga sessions all in the name of improving the wellness and productivity of their employees.
Digital detox initiatives were proven to be the top employee wellbeing trend for 2024 with many companies also introducing tech-free rooms, as well as including scheduled breaks for employees to take breaks from their screens during the working day, because of the many benefits screen-free time can have. Corporate Wellness Magazine+1Wellics | Employee Wellbeing Platform+1
Some organisations have also implemented ‘Digital Detox Days’ and have seen a massive improvement in productivity with a reported 82% improvement in productivity and a 70% increase in job satisfaction, again proving just how useful it can be to encourage employees to unplug from their devices for a set time. Vorecol HRMS
Is the offline wellness movement right for you?
Let this be your sign to take a step back from your tech and take a moment to notice all the moments you could be missing because of the tech that surrounds you every day. Yes, that means to look at your screen time metrics and also have a look at the apps you spend most of your time on and see if there’s a way you can cut down on that.
Check back in the apps you spend most of your time on to see if you can set timed limits for each day, as those are limits you can set straight away. Try to make sure that you set these limits gradually, if you set all the limits straight away, you may find yourself feeling constricted and wanting to rebel against your limits.
Doing these previous things gets you to analyse your screen habits and where to start when you look at your screen metrics on your phone. So, take the information you’ve previously looked at and then take a look at your daily routine to see where else you can make changes to include more activity that is offline throughout your day as opposed to being online, constantly feeling beholden to the idea of FOMO.
The offline wellness movement might be for you if you want to improve your physical and mental wellness while getting all of the improved focus benefits too. However, it may seem a lot to implement, so go step by step and set yourself healthy boundaries with tech, just like you do with people throughout your life.
The main thing is that you come up with something that is personalised to your lifestyle and is something which fits in with you, as opposed to you fitting in with the offline wellness plan. If you are serious about going offline more, its a good idea to share some of the benefits with your employer, if they don’t already implement something like a digital detox day or offline wellness rooms.
Read more from Jemma Blythe
Jemma Blythe, Life Coach
Jemma Blythe is a qualified Life Coach, after grief and trauma through her childhood had left her with Mental Health Illnesses, Jemma created strategies to overcome the Mental Health challenges she was left with. She has since worked hard to empower Women to reconnect with themselves after experiencing trauma so that they can uncover their true authentic, independent selves. She is the CEO of Living Imperfectly Perfect Coaching.
