Addicted to your smartphone? How to start kicking the habit

From the intoxicating rush of a new notification, to the panic and helplessness of a dead battery, the emotions associated with cellphone use are very real.

According to University of British Columbianeuroethics professor Peter Reiner, the feelings our phones give us area productof our growing reliance on and addiction to the technology.

"Many people do profess great anxiety whenthey'reaway from their phone," Reinertold host DanBurritonCBC'sB.C. Almanac.

In fact, studies suggestthat excessivecell phone use has significant mental health consequences, including mood changes, insomnia,and even depression.

So how can you free yourself of the adverse health effects of your buzzing smartphone? According to Reiner, a few simple lifestyle changes can work wonders for your mental health but users will ultimately need to put pressure on big app developers to design less addictive technology.

Simple changes

The link between sleep deprivation and smartphones has been well documented, especially amongchildren and teenagers.Reiner says the phones can keep anyone awake at night, especially when they're sitting right next to your pillow.

"The first thing you can do, is not take that phone into the bedroom and keep it by your bedside," saidReiner.

• Teens getting less sleep with rise ofsmartphones, study says

Lack of sleep has beenlinked to health problems ranging from obesity and diabetes to depression and substance use.

Reinersays another troublesome outcome of smartphoneuseis the tendency the devices have to drive attention away from a person's tasks or surroundings.

"The second thing to remove as many of the notifications all those sounds as you can," said Reiner. "If you watch people, as soon as a text comes in, they turn their head from whatever they are doing and immediately focus on that phone."

It can take up to five minutes to refocus on a task once someoneis distracted by a text message or notification, Reiner says.

The infinite scroll

But most users are still held captive by app developers, according to Reiner. The most insidious attention grabber: the infinite scroll.

"When you're on FB or Instagram, you just continue to scroll and it never stops. and every time you swipe it, this new novel thing comes before you," said Reiner.

"Those kinds of intrinsic designs if they were to modify them it might help us. But it might not help their bottom line."

Reiner says consumer pushback could play a role in thecultivation of software that is less addictive. In fact,Apple's major investors have even grilled the companyfor not doing enough to curbiPhoneaddiction.

"We think abut all thoseappsas being free, but they're not free we pay with our attention, and we pay with all those clicks on the ads," said Reiner.

The neuroethics professor urges concernedsocial media users to urge major app developers todesign software that ismore friendly to the user's best interests.

"Until we make those companies pay with their bottom lines being affected Idon't think anything will change."

With files from CBC's BC Almanac