Creativity—that is, the process of coming up with new ideas—also requires relaxation and mental space, both of which are hard to come by when we’re on our phones. Creativity requires you to be well rested—as Judith Owens, director of Sleep Medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., has said, “Sleep deprivation can affect memory, creativity, verbal creativity, and even things like judgment and motivation.” And creativity is often sparked by boredom, which is another mental state that our phones are great at helping us avoid.
