What 3 days without your phone does to your brain

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Every Week: one study on what screen time does to your brain, and what to do about it.

We're in the final stretch: testing now, and submitting it to the Play Store.

You'll hear from me the day it's live.

Last week, only 1 in 4 people managed to keep their phone internet blocked for 2 weeks.

Even with an app built to lock them out.

This week's study helps explain why.

Researchers in Germany asked 25 young adults to cut their phone use to the bare minimum for 72 hours.

Only essential messages and work.

Before and after, they scanned their brains with MRI while showing them pictures.

Phones switched on. Phones switched off. Everyday objects.

Here's what happened.

The brain's reward system lit up.

After just 3 days away, the sight of a phone triggered more activity in the nucleus accumbens and the anterior cingulate cortex.

These are areas that help your brain decide what's worth chasing.

It's the same pattern that shows up in studies of craving.

But nobody felt it.

On questionnaires, their craving and mood didn't change.

The shift happened below awareness.

Your brain can be pulling you toward your phone without you noticing.

You don't feel a craving. You just pick it up.

That's why "I'll just use it less" rarely survives the week.

Willpower can't fight something it can't see.

That's exactly the problem RISE Pro is built to solve. More on that below.

As a doctor, I'm not going to oversell this one.

It's a small study: 25 people, and no control group.

Nobody tracked how much they actually used their phones during the 72 hours.

And your reward system reacts like this to anything you've been deprived of. Food included.

So it doesn't prove phones are "addictive like drugs." It's one piece of the picture. But it fits with last week's study.

Don't rely on noticing the urge. Change your environment instead.

Tonight, charge your phone outside your bedroom.

Just one night. See how the morning feels.

Most screen time apps have the same flaw: you can delete them in two taps.

Dumb phones fix that, but take away everything useful. Maps, banking, messages.

RISE Pro sits in between.

Device-level restrictions you can't bypass, delete or work around, while keeping the parts of your phone you actually need.

Your phone becomes a tool again, not a slot machine.

Want early access? Reply "PRO" to this email and you'll be first in line.

Hit reply and tell me:

When do you reach for your phone without deciding to? First thing in the morning? In a queue? On the toilet?

I read every reply.

See you next week.

— Chris

The study: Schmitgen MM, Henemann GM, Koenig J, Otte M-L, Rosero JP, Bach P, Haage SH, Wolf ND, Wolf RC. Effects of smartphone restriction on cue-related neural activity. Computers in Human Behavior. 2025;167:108610. doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2025.108610