We stopped looking at wall clocks and started checking phones for the time. Now we check the time and lose an hour.

The tool is almost never the problem. People got up for school and work long before anything buzzed on a nightstand, which means waking up was always a decision rather than a technology. What changed is that the same object now holds the clock and every reason to stay awake. Reaching for the time has become a doorway, and the doorway leads somewhere that does not return you quickly.

Try moving the time somewhere dumb this week. A cheap clock, an oven display, a watch. Keep the phone across the room at night and see what the first ten minutes of your day feel like.