India, May 28 -- Your alarm goes off, you reach out to silence it - and before you are even fully awake, you are checking notifications. Maybe it is that work email you have been thinking about, a stack of unread messages, or the text you were hoping to get back overnight. For many people, this has become an automatic part of waking up. But that quick scroll first thing in the morning may be doing more than just catching you up - it can shape your stress levels, attention span and mental state for the rest of the day.

Dr Kunal Sood, an anaesthesiologist and interventional pain medicine physician, is breaking down the very real effects of checking your phone immediately after waking up. In an Instagram video shared on May 28, the physicia...