The Viral ‘Analog Wellness’ Morning Routine That Experts Say Helps You Feel Calmer Fast
See the simple practices you can try tomorrow morning—before reaching for your phone
Key Takeaways
- Analog wellness swaps morning screen time for slower, device-free habits.
- A slower morning may help support focus, productivity and lower stress.
- Journaling, hydration and muscle relaxation are easy ways to try it.
Your eyes gently open after a restorative sleep and you catch a glimpse of sun peeking through your window. It’s a moment of pure peace. But just a few seconds later, you reach for your phone. And what perhaps started as an honest intention to turn off your alarm has now turned into a 20-minute session of scrolling TikTok, reading the morning’s headlines or catching up on work emails before you’ve even gotten out of bed. Sound familiar? A recent survey from Reviews.org found that 85 percent of people check their phones within just 10 minutes of waking up. But people are now pushing back with a slower morning routine with, get this, no phones. We spoke to experts about the analog wellness trend and got their best tips so you can give it a try yourself.
What is analog wellness?
“Analog wellness refers to health practices that don’t require a screen, an app or a device, the kind of slow, embodied activities that were simply called ‘living’ before smartphones arrived. Journaling, walking, stretching or making coffee without looking at your phone,” says Sarah Boss, MD, Clinical Director at THE BALANCE and a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapeutic medicine.
“The ‘analog’ framing has emerged partly as a cultural correction to the quantified self movement: the idea that you need a wearable to tell you how you slept or an app to tell you to breathe,” continues Dr. Boss.
Why is analog wellness trending?
For decades, we’ve all accepted that screens are a core part of our life, so why the push toward analog wellness now? “People are drawn to it because the digital pace is exhausting,” says Anna Cabeca, DO, FACOG, triple-board certified ob-gyn, regenerative and integrative medicine physician. “Our nervous systems were not built for constant pings, comparison feeds and 24-hour news cycles. There’s a real hunger to reclaim the first few minutes of the day as ours again.”
How a slower morning routine supports your wellbeing
Because we’re all so glued to a busy morning routine involving our phones, we think that we’re being productive by ticking something off our to-do list first thing —but we’re actually not supporting our health.
“The moment you open your phone in the morning, you hand control of your attention to whoever sent you something last night,” says Dr. Boss. “Cortisol is naturally elevated in the first thirty minutes after waking. It’s part of the body’s healthy alerting system. Adding social comparison, news and notifications to that window amplifies the stress response before the prefrontal cortex is fully online. The result is a morning that begins in reactive mode rather than intentional mode, and that pattern tends to persist.”
While you might have to do some unlearning about what a healthy morning routine looks like, slowing down your morning routine can actually help support your productivity and focus throughout the day.
“The prefrontal cortex, which governs sustained attention, planning and executive function, takes time to fully activate after sleep,” says Dr. Boss. “A slow, low-stimulation morning supports that activation. A high-stimulation morning triggers the limbic system instead, keeping the brain in a threat-scanning mode that is incompatible with deep focus. You can override this, but it costs cognitive resources you’d rather spend elsewhere.”
Dr. Cabeca adds that just a few minutes of morning analog wellness practices have whole-body benefits. “Your heart rate variability improves, cortisol settles into a healthier rhythm and digestion gets a green light because your parasympathetic nervous system, or rest-and-digest mode, activates,” says Dr. Cabeca.
3 analog wellness activities for calmer mornings
Here’s what our experts recommend:
Progressive muscle relaxation
“Tighten [then release] one muscle group at a time. Start with your hands, then shoulders, then legs; do this for a few seconds, working through your whole body,” says Cynthia Odogwu, MD, a family and lifestyle medicine physician.
She recommends giving progressive muscle relaxation a try before having any coffee and while your body is still relaxed from sleep. She also recommends doing it for about 10 to 15 minutes each morning to help your body start to better learn the difference between tightness and calm (it’s easy to miss tension creeping up throughout the day until it feels overwhelming).
Hydration with intention
You’ve heard of the importance of drinking water, but how and when you drink it can set you up for a brighter day ahead. Dr. Cabeca recommends drinking a full glass of water right after waking up before any caffeine. She adds that you can even add lemon or a pinch of sea salt (a natural electrolyte) to boost hydration. Or grab a premade electrolyte drink such as dye-free Pedialyte Essential Rehydration. “This is about rehydrating after a night of breathing and detoxing, and it signals to your body that the day is starting gently,” explains Dr. Cabeca.
Journal before screen time
Dr. Boss recommends journaling after your first morning coffee or tea, but before using your phone. “Try three to five minutes of free writing, whatever is in your head, no structure required,” says Dr. Boss. “This externalizes the mental noise that would otherwise cycle as background distraction. It doesn’t need to be meaningful. It just needs to be honest.”
Worried you don’t have time to shift your morning to one that incorporates analog wellness practices? Dr. Odogwu provides some advice. “The easiest way is ‘habit stacking,’ which refers to attaching one tiny wellness action to something you already do, like taking three slow breaths while your coffee brews. Linking a new habit to an existing routine makes it feel automatic instead of like another task.”
The bottom line on an analog wellness routine
We get it! You use your phone so often that reaching for it in the morning feels automatic at this point. And while building a routine around these analog wellness practices likely won’t happen overnight, taking one step toward a slower morning can help support your health and wellbeing one day at a time.
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