Photo: Photo by Vardan Papikyan on Unsplash
By Declan Bowring for the ABC
Have you ever found yourself without your mobile phone and been struck with a sense of panic?
If so, you're not alone - and that feeling has a name.
No (no) mo (mobile) phobia (fear) is the anxiety or discomfort of not being connected to the digital world.
It's a very modern phenomenon, given the rise of smartphones in the last two decades and their ever increasing integration into daily life.
Phones have become not just a means of calling and texting, but also a payment method, a way of accessing government services and a source for entertainment - to name a few.
Research by Deloitte found that about 20 percent of us check our phones more than 50 times per day.
That's the equivalent of checking your phone "once about every 20 minutes of every waking hour".
What happens when we can't put down our phones
Sudden withdrawal is typically characterised by an elevated level of stress, according to Eric Lim from the University of New South Wales.
Lim studied the impact of nomophobia after experiencing it himself. He's a big fan of cryptocurrencies and gets most of his news about them through X (the website formerly known as Twitter).
"I feel that if I'm not keeping track of what's happening in the cryptocurrency world, I'm missing out," Lim said.
"It just means that every time I put down the phone, a few seconds later I'll be picking up my phone and checking Twitter again and again."
Lim and his colleagues looked at nomophobia through a survey of over 5,000 students at a university in China.
The study found nomophobia and sleep deprivation were positively correlated and both negatively affected people's physical and mental health.
Interestingly, responders who used one app deeply, rather than many apps lightly, were more likely to have poor sleep.
"The user is more deeply captured by a specific activity within the phone that actually causes the individual to sacrifice sleep for that," Lim said.
How your phone use can 'hijack your brain'
There is a debate about whether smartphones should be classified as addictive.
But Lim said our phones have a reward system much like other addictions, such as drugs and alcohol.
"The smartphone is designed in such a way as to hijack your brain," he said.
"Every time you see a notification or you see something that is happening in the phone, a reward is forthcoming.
In the sense that phone use is like an addiction, nomophobia is like withdrawal, Lim said.
How our phone habits impact our sleep
Phone addiction and nomophobia can also impact your attention span and quality of sleep.
Sleep deprivation comes from delaying when you go to sleep because of phone usage, according to sleep researcher Grace Vincent from CQUniversity's Appleton Institute in Adelaide.
"Light basically tricks your brain into thinking the sun is still shining," Vincent said.
"So when you've got a device that's shining in your face, it can keep you awake.
"That can cause you to delay your bedtime, especially if you're scrolling on your device at night."
Vincent recommends not using your phone an hour before bedtime, opting for a book instead.
She also recommends using an alarm to mark when you need to start heading to sleep and not keeping the phone by the bed.
Lim found he had to replace his Twitter habit with books. He also made his phone screen monochrome (black and white) and as a rule doesn't look at his phone for the first two hours of any day.
"I felt that works way better, I can stimulate my mind with books," Lim said.
"I think it's more healthy."
*This story was first published on the ABC.