To avoid this craving taking hold, Dr Huberman – who hosts the Huberman Lab Podcast on science for everyday life – turns off his phone for a couple of hours every day.

The professor recommended that everyone does the same, for at least one hour a day. But he also warned that doing so won’t be easy, due to way that phones are tethered to people’s expectations around attachment. “It’s incredibly hard [when I switch my phone off], people get really upset,” he said.

That’s because, he explained, we all operate by an attachment map made up of space (where people are), time (when we’ll see them again) and closeness (feelings of intimacy). “The phone has allowed us to tap into this space, time and closeness map, which defines our all our attachments on a very regular basis,” said Dr Huberman. “So, you can understand why it’s so valuable to people you know.”

With that in mind, turning off your phone for an hour every day might be a trickier feat than it seems. You may even test some of your closest relationships by doing so. But the reward – being able to escape that mindless scroll habit so many of us now perform as a reflex – will be more than worth the short-lived discomfort.

This is why you should turn your phone off for at least an hour every day, according to a neuroscientist