How to hold your smartphone correctly to avoid pain

There are so many ways a phone can affect your health, aside from harmful content, that smartphone manufacturers are building in tools to counteract it. Before you get carpal tunnel syndrome, eyestrain, or another migraine, try a few small changes.

Here, organized by body part, are some things experts say you should do differently when using your smartphone.

We talk a lot about the right and wrong ways to type or sit at a desk, but how should you grip your favorite little screen?

The key is to maintain a neutral wrist position, says Lauren Shapiro, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. That means the wrist is straight or only slightly bent.

“Bending or straightening the wrist and a tight grip or grip place greater stress on the body,” says Shapiro.

She recommends taking breaks to avoid prolonged use, making sure your phone isn’t too big for your hand, and opting for hands-free features whenever possible, such as voice dictation or making a phone call instead of texting.

If you use a back mount to hold your phone, be careful not to place the entire weight of the phone in one place, such as on a single finger.

There is not enough research to establish a direct causal link between hand injuries and increased cell phone use, Shapiro says, but it is likely that incorrectly and too frequently holding a smartphone or tablet can contribute to problems such as thumb arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis.

Call your doctor if you experience numbness or tingling, clicking or locking of the fingers, or persistent or severe pain and/or numbness in the hand, arm, or shoulder on the side where you hold the phone.

The ideal way to hold a phone may be not to hold it at all. Stand it up or use a stand that also serves as a charger and place it at eye level.

Before you blast “Pink Pony Club” through your headphones, be careful not to crank the volume too high and risk hearing loss. The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders recommends keeping noise levels below 70 decibels. On an iPhone, you can choose the maximum volume under the Sounds & Haptics → Headphone Safety setting. You can also control a child’s maximum volume in the Screen Time controls. On an Android, you’ll find options in the Sounds & Vibrations settings.

Staring at the screen of a smartphone or tablet for long periods of time can lead to eye strain. Distance, breaks and a little sunlight can help.

When you look at your phone, it should be at least 12 inches away from your face to avoid eyestrain, advises Raj Maturi, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and an ophthalmologist at the Midwest Eye Institute. Take a break from looking at the screen every 20 minutes or so, but don’t just stare at the wall. Go outside.

“When you’re outside in the blazing sun, your pupils constrict completely,” says Maturi. “This automatically reduces the pressure on your eyes.”

You can try the 20-20-20 rule, where you take a 20-second break every 20 minutes to stare at something at least 20 feet away from you. You can also take longer but less frequent breaks. Whatever you do, make sure you find ways to relax your irises and pupils.

In addition to eyestrain, staring at screens for too long can lead to more permanent eye problems, especially in younger users, experts say. There isn’t enough evidence yet to link long phone and screen use to an increase in nearsightedness, but Maturi says the correlation is pretty strong.

Apple has an optional feature called Screen Distance under Settings → Screen Time that alerts you when your screen is too close to your face.

Phones were designed for mobility, but they can often make us sluggish, leaving us glued to our chairs or rotting in our beds.

If your phone use is preventing you from exercising regularly, schedule breaks. According to the Department of Health, adults should do 2.5 to 5 hours of moderate aerobic activity each week. Short on time? Try 75 minutes of more intense activity. Spread it out over the week so you get your heart pumping for at least 30 minutes a day.

The benefits of regular exercise are well documented, but it can also reduce the risk of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and some cancers. It can also lower cholesterol, increase energy levels, help with conditions that affect cognitive abilities, and even improve mental health.

Do you suffer from separation anxiety with your phone? Take it with you! Listen to music or a podcast while you go for a walk or run errands, but leave your phone in your pocket.

According to Charles Flippen II, associate dean of the Center for Continuing Professional Development at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, a screen can trigger tension headaches or migraines in sufferers.

Causes include lack of exercise, neck posture, sensitivity to light and reduced blinking, which leads to dry eyes.

The solution, as you might have guessed, is to use your device in moderation and take regular breaks. If you’re sensitive to light, you can turn down the brightness or avoid looking at a bright screen in a dark room. To avoid straining your neck, place your phone as close to eye level as possible.

Our smartphones have another big impact on our brains: They eat away at our sleep. Flippen, who is the Richard D. and Ruth P. Walter Professor of Neurology, recommends avoiding screens in bed and for at least an hour before bedtime. If you absolutely must look — and do you really? — enable settings to minimize blue light, which could inhibit melatonin production. On iOS devices, turn on the “Night Shift” setting. On Android devices, go to the display settings and look for the blue light or night settings.

“To get proper rest, you need to clear your mind of everything that happened during the day. And the best way to do that is to simply put your phone away,” says Flippen.