I used to wake up and immediately reach for my phone.
Not to check anything specific. Just… reach. Scroll. See what I’d missed in the six hours I’d been unconscious. The morning disappeared into Reddit, Twitter, Instagram. Before I’d even gotten out of bed, I’d consumed an hour.
Then I’d feel bad about it. Promise myself I’d do better. And the next morning, reach again.
Finding r/NoSurf was the first step. But understanding the problem intellectually didn’t stop my hand from reaching. That’s where hypnosis came in.
The NoSurf realisation
If you haven’t encountered the NoSurf community, the core insight is simple: we’re not using the internet — the internet is using us.
Infinite scroll, variable rewards, notification dopamine hits — these aren’t accidents. They’re the result of thousands of engineers optimising for engagement. And engagement means time spent.
When I tracked my screen time honestly, I was horrified. Four to six hours daily on my phone. Not doing anything productive. Just… consuming.
The NoSurf approach is to reclaim that time intentionally. Set boundaries. Create friction. Ask whether you’re using technology or being used by it.
I agreed with all of it. I nodded along to every post. And then I picked up my phone and scrolled Reddit for another hour.
Why willpower wasn’t enough
Here’s what I learned: understanding the problem doesn’t automatically create change.
My conscious mind knew scrolling was a waste. But some other part of me — call it my unconscious, my habits, my dopamine system — didn’t care. The urge arose, my hand moved, I scrolled.
This is because scrolling is a deeply conditioned behaviour. Thousands of repetitions. Instant reward every time. The neural pathway is a six-lane motorway.
Willpower is trying to divert traffic with a handwritten sign. It works briefly, when you’re paying attention. The moment you’re tired, stressed, or distracted, the traffic takes the motorway again.
What self-hypnosis offers
Hypnosis works at a different level.
Instead of fighting the conscious battle (“don’t pick up your phone, don’t pick up your phone”), hypnosis accesses the unconscious patterns directly. It rewires the association between boredom-reach-scroll-reward.
In a hypnotic state — which is really just focused, absorbed attention — the mind is more receptive to suggestion. You can install new patterns:
- Feeling an urge to scroll → noticing the urge → choosing consciously
- Associating phone pickup with awareness, not automatic behaviour
- Building identity-level beliefs (“I’m someone who uses technology intentionally”)
This isn’t magic. It’s working with the same mechanisms that created the addiction in the first place — repetition, suggestion, emotion — but in reverse.
My hypnosis approach
I started using self-hypnosis specifically targeted at phone/scrolling habits.
The sessions typically included:
Relaxation and trance induction. Getting into that focused, receptive state where the conscious chatter quiets down.
Visualisation of the old pattern. Seeing myself reach for the phone automatically, recognising how hollow it felt after.
Installing a pattern interrupt. When the urge arises, I notice it. I pause. I ask: “What do I actually need right now?”
Future self visualisation. Seeing myself three months from now, phone usage under control, time reclaimed for what matters.
Suggestion embedding. Direct suggestions about intentional technology use, awareness of urges, choice over automaticity.
One session didn’t fix anything. But after two weeks of daily practice, something shifted.
The actual changes
What happened wasn’t that urges disappeared. They still arise. But the gap between urge and action widened.
Before: urge → scroll (instantaneous, unconscious) After: urge → awareness → choice → often, not scrolling
That gap is everything. It’s where agency lives.
I also noticed the emotional landscape changed. The anxious pull to check phone became… quieter. Not gone, but less demanding. Like a whisper instead of a shout.
My screen time dropped from 5+ hours to around 90 minutes. Not through white-knuckling. Through actually wanting to use my phone less.
Practical combination
If you’re interested in combining NoSurf principles with hypnosis:
Start with awareness. Track your screen time honestly. Know what you’re dealing with.
Identify your triggers. When do you reach? Boredom? Anxiety? Waking up? Waiting in line? Know your patterns.
Use hypnosis for the specific triggers. Don’t try to address everything at once. Focus on one pattern — morning phone use, bedtime scrolling, whatever’s worst.
Create environmental friction. Keep phone in another room at night. Remove apps from home screen. This complements the internal work.
Be patient. Habits built over years don’t dissolve in days. The hypnosis accelerates change, but it’s still a process.
Why hypnosis over meditation for this
Both meditation and hypnosis can help with phone addiction. But they work differently.
Meditation builds awareness and equanimity. You notice urges without reacting. That’s valuable.
Hypnosis actively reshapes the patterns. It’s more directive. You’re not just observing the urge — you’re changing your relationship to it at the source.
For deeply ingrained habits like phone addiction, I found hypnosis more effective. You’re fighting fire with fire — the same suggestibility that got you hooked, now redirected.
Meditation was good maintenance. Hypnosis did the heavy lifting.
AI hypnosis for phone habits
At InTheMoment, you can specifically request hypnosis for phone/scrolling habits.
“I can’t stop scrolling social media and I want to break the habit.”
The session then addresses your specific patterns — not generic habit advice, but targeted work on the unconscious drivers of your particular scrolling behaviour.
This is what I used for my own practice. Having sessions that adapted to where I was at — some days focused on morning scrolling, other days on the anxiety underneath the urge — made it feel less like a programme and more like ongoing support.
Two free sessions per day. Worth trying if you’ve understood the NoSurf principles but struggle to actually implement them.
Reclaiming your time
The hours I’ve reclaimed are genuinely valuable.
I read more books. I’m more present with family. I have hobbies again. The constant low-grade anxiety of “I should check” has faded.
I’m not perfectly “cured.” I still use my phone, still browse sometimes. But it’s intentional now. I choose it rather than defaulting to it.
That shift — from unconscious consumption to conscious choice — is what NoSurf points toward. Hypnosis is what got me there.
Struggling with scrolling habits? Get started with two free sessions per day — try self-hypnosis to work on the patterns themselves, not just willpower.