After a long day of work staring at screens, Joel Harley used to go to bed and scroll through his phone until he fell asleep. He would doomscroll news headlines, read hateful comments on social media, or revisit workplace dramas on Teams and Slack. He was always plugged in, and this ritual started well before bedtime. As the evening wound down, he would surf algorithms for hours, barely paying attention to TV shows or conversations around him. Whether it was the dystopian news cycle, toxic pop culture opinions, or posts against LinkedIn speak, there was always another online scab to pick.
When sleep finally arrived, it was restless and anxiety-ridden. His brain swam with fears of apocalypses and the vitriol of online agitators, and his dreams were full of the same. After one too many feverish nights, he realized he had to make a change. To break his phone's insidious hold, he searched for something to better occupy his attention. Books seemed like the natural solution, and he quickly turned to comics.
Rediscovering a Childhood Passion
Harley had been a voracious comic book reader as a youth in the early 1990s, starting with the Beano and Dandy, then moving on to The Adventures of Tintin and Asterix. From there, he graduated to his father's 2000 AD collection, which held an illicit thrill due to its violent strips. He devoured everything he could get his hands on: Preacher, The Sandman, Watchmen, Batman. But as an adult in his 30s, he was no longer the devout reader he once was.
That changed in late 2024, when he decided to ditch doomscrolling. Spurred by the online furore surrounding Donald Trump's second term, he realized he needed to preserve his mental health and create new routines before he became consumed with fear and anger. He turned to his inner child for self-care.
The New Routine
Instead of reaching for his phone in the evenings, Harley picked up a comic. Reading as an adult restored a sense of childlike wonder that transcended his anxieties. His sleep quality improved, and his dreams became more fanciful, less marked by the banal terrors of daily life. He woke up feeling revitalized, free from the residual negativity of doomscrolling.
Inspired by the colorful imagery and ideas in comic books, he channeled a newfound creativity into his work as a journalist. He also felt less urge to check work channels after leaving the office, as that time became valuable comic book time.
Benefits Beyond Sleep
Harley hadn't realized how his attention span had suffered from a decade of switching apps at the blink of an eye. Reading lengthy comic series or graphic novels improved his focus and gave him a sense of accomplishment, unlike the self-loathing he felt after spending an hour on Reddit.
For someone whose mind tends to spiral, comic books offered escapism that allowed him to tackle fears of apocalypse, dictators, and AI uprising in a safe environment. Dystopian sci-fi and extreme horror comics may not seem like cozy bedtime reading, but they felt healthier than the fearmongering of online commenters.
A Lasting Change
Rediscovering his love for comic books isn't about burying his head in the sand. It's about carving out time for self-care in a demanding world. Leaving behind his evenings glued to the phone boosted his mood, creativity, and outlook on life. He let his inner child back out and hasn't looked back since.
