I recently spent a week in the beautiful Philippine island of Boracay, my first time visiting the country.
The island was busy, lively and filled with tourists, but it also felt peaceful in a way I had not realised I needed. Maybe it was being surrounded by nature, the sound of waves replacing traffic or simply the slower pace of mornings, but after a few days there, I noticed how much calmer I felt mentally.
While I was away, my building in Abu Dhabi installed a giant digital display at reception. New screens had also appeared inside the lifts, complete with moving advertisements and sound. I was already contending with tablet-sized entertainment screens glowing from the back of taxi seats during my daily commute. More recently, a digital billboard facing my tower has begun flashing advertisements through the night, lighting up my apartment on the 15th floor in pulses of colour. I used to like sleeping with the curtains open and waking naturally with the morning light, now I draw them because the signage outside seems brighter than my future.
Many of us are already glued to our phones for large parts of the day. Notifications, messages, videos, emails and social media follow us from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. The additional screens, now seemingly everywhere, are sensory extras.
A study by the University of Sharjah and American University of Beirut published last year found that 37.7 per cent of students spent more than seven hours on screens each weekday, outside of lessons.
Given our usage, a digital detox, although well-intentioned is likely to be unsuccessful, as my colleague found out.
Returning from Boracay made me realise how much stimulation modern urban life now demands from us almost every waking second. It also made me wonder how many of us have quietly become overstimulated without fully recognising it, and what the long-term effects of that might be.
“We are undoubtedly more exposed to information, notifications, advertising and digital input than people at any other point in history,” says Anna Wibage, chief executive of Sequoia, a mental health and wellness clinic in Dubai.
That observation feels difficult to argue with once you begin noticing how little silence now exists in daily life. Waiting for lifts, sitting in taxis and walking through a shopping malls, moments that once felt passive are now layered with displays, alerts, notifications, movement and sound.
But how do you know you've become overstimulated?
“Many people describe it as an inability to ‘switch off’ mentally,” says Wibage. And this often leads to “poor sleep, difficulty concentrating, irritability, mental fatigue and even unhealthy habits around food or stress management”.
Over time, she adds, that constant cognitive load can leave people feeling drained even if they haven’t done any significant physical activity.
“An overstimulated brain finds it hard to focus, let alone process and store information,” says Dr Stefna Shah, specialist neurologist at Aster Clinic.
According to her, the maximum overstimulation occurs between 1pm to 7pm and in the presence of others than when alone.
I also cannot help wondering how much of this is tied to age. I am now in my forties, and perhaps I simply notice sensory overload more than I once did. Younger people often seem remarkably comfortable juggling multiple forms of digital stimulation simultaneously – scrolling social media while watching videos, replying to messages and listening to music all at once.
Maybe they have adapted better than my generation has. Or maybe they are overstimulated too, but have never experienced anything different.
What struck me most while speaking to both experts was that neither suggested abandoning technology altogether. That would be unrealistic. Modern existence is built around screens and connectivity, where convenience and digital integration are part of everyday life.
Instead, the advice was more practical and some many of us have heard before. Reduce screen exposure before bedtime. Disable non-essential notifications. Take breaks between activities. Spend more time outdoors.
“Embrace boredom and sit with stillness,” Dr Shah adds. “It can increase creativity and help the brain retain information more.”
I have thought about that line often since returning from Boracay.
Not because I suddenly want to escape city life or reject technology. I do not. I enjoy the energy of urbanity too much for that. But the trip did make me realise how accustomed many of us have become to constant stimulation, to the point where silence and stillness now feel almost unfamiliar.
Perhaps this is simply modern life evolving around us. As cities become brighter, faster and more connected, attention has become one of the world’s most valuable commodities and everyone is competing for it.
But have we allowed ourselves to become so surrounded by noise, screens and notifications that we no longer recognise what calm actually feels like?
