How to stop doomscrolling, especially at night

What is doomscrolling?

Doomscrolling is the habit of scrolling through social media and news feeds looking for bad news, often long after it stops being useful. Researchers Sharma and colleagues described it as habitual, immersive scanning of social media feeds for timely negative information, a definition used in later studies.¹

It is not only a pandemic word. In a 2025 survey of 2,007 US adults for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), 38% said using a phone or tablet before bed to view news, or doomscrolling, makes their sleep slightly or significantly worse. Among 18 to 24 year olds it was 46%.²

Why is doomscrolling so hard to stop?

Doomscrolling can feel like a personal failing. A lot of it is design.

Endless scrolling has no stopping point

A 2019 analysis of popular apps by Montag and colleagues explains that with endless scrolling you get more and more absorbed without reaching a natural stop, the kind of moment where you might decide to quit. Because you find something rewarding now and then, they compare the pull to the intermittent rewards studied in slot machines.³ The authors are clear that this is a theoretical paper, not a measured experiment.

Aza Raskin, who designed infinite scroll in 2006, told the BBC in 2018 that when your brain has no time to catch up with your impulses, "you just keep scrolling."⁴

Autoplay and recommendations decide for you

In a 2021 study of the YouTube app, a survey of 120 US users found that autoplay and recommendations mainly undermined people's sense of agency, while search and playlists supported it.⁵

Uncertainty keeps you looking

Satici and colleagues note that uncertain events push people to hunt for answers, and that platforms use algorithms to serve the content most likely to hold attention.¹ Bad news rarely feels finished, so there is always one more update to check.

For a deeper look at these tricks, read why apps are addictive.

What does doomscrolling do to you?

Most of the research is survey based, so it shows links rather than proof that doomscrolling causes harm. With that in mind, the findings point in the same direction.

• Distress and wellbeing. Across three studies of adults in Türkiye, doomscrolling was linked to social media addiction and fear of missing out. Its link with lower wellbeing ran through psychological distress.¹
• Existential anxiety. In university students who use social media, 620 in Iran and 180 in the US, doomscrolling was associated with higher existential anxiety in both groups.⁶
• Mood during a crisis. A 30 day diary study of 61 young adults in Vermont early in the pandemic linked social media exposure to increases in depression and PTSD symptoms, more strongly in people with a history of childhood maltreatment. The same link was not found for traditional media.⁷
• Sleep. As above, many US adults say doomscrolling at bedtime makes their sleep worse.²

Doomscrolling at night: why bedtime is the danger zone

Night is when the habit does the most damage, because every extra minute usually comes out of sleep. AASM Past President Dr James Rowley said phone use before bed should be limited, and that the type of content you view near bedtime matters too.²

If you tend to scroll in bed, see our guides to how to stop scrolling in bed and bedtime procrastination.

How to stop doomscrolling: 9 fixes

You do not need to quit your phone. Pick two or three of these and build from there.

1. Keep your phone out of the bedroom. The AASM suggests placing phones in another room at bedtime and using a clock for your alarm.²
2. Set a screens off time. The AASM suggests powering down electronics at least 30 to 60 minutes before bed.²
3. Turn off non essential notifications. This was one of ten strategies in a 2022 McGill University trial with young adults, most of them students. Compared with a group who only tracked their screen time, people using the strategies cut problematic smartphone use and screen time and slept better.⁸
4. Hide news and social apps. The same trial asked people to move social media and email apps into a folder off the home screen.⁸ Less visible means fewer automatic taps.
5. Try greyscale. Setting the display to greyscale was another strategy in that trial,⁸ and the BBC reported that Raskin had set his own phone to monochrome.⁴ We look at the evidence in does grayscale reduce screen time.
6. Search, do not scroll. Open an app with a specific question in mind. In the YouTube study, search supported people's sense of control, and the recommendation feed undermined it.⁵
7. Switch off autoplay where you can. Autoplay removes the pause between one video and the next.³⁵
8. Cut back, do not quit. In a German experiment with 619 smartphone users, cutting daily use by one hour reduced depressive and anxiety symptoms. Most effects were stronger and more stable over four months than those from a week of total abstinence.⁹
9. Block the feeds at set times. An app blocker for iPhone can lock your news and social apps at night, so stopping does not rely on willpower in the moment.

Where SETL fits

SETL is an iPhone app blocker built bedtime first. You pick the apps you doomscroll on and set your bedtime once, and SETL Sleep blocks them automatically every night. For the daytime, SETL Sessions blocks them for a set time, and opening early needs a deliberate press and hold. Find out more about the SETL app blocker.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Speak to your doctor about ongoing sleep, attention or mental health concerns.