FreeInFive

Why FreeInFive

The research behind FreeInFive

Last updated September 2026

We put numbers in our app, our ads and our store listing. This page is where they come from, so you can check them yourself.

First

Everything here is third-party, peer-reviewed or nationally representative research about how phones, habits, movement and breathing work — none of it is data about FreeInFive users, and we don’t make claims about our users until we can prove them.

Second

Where a study is small or early, we say so. A number is only useful if it’s honest.

How much time is actually going

US adults now spend about 5 hours 16 minutes a day on their smartphone.1 Globally the figure is 4 hours 37 minutes.2 Teenagers spend nearly nine hours a day on entertainment screens — 8 hours 39 minutes for ages 13–18, not counting schoolwork.3

Not all of that time is chosen. Economists modelling social media behaviour estimate that about 31% of use is a failure of self-control — habit rather than intent.4 That’s the part FreeInFive is built for.

What your phone does even when you’re not using it

In a series of experiments with nearly 800 participants, people did measurably worse on working-memory and reasoning tests when their own phone was simply on the desk — silent, face down, untouched — compared with when it was in another room.5 The effect wasn’t about notifications. It was the effort of not looking.

That’s why FreeInFive interrupts you, rather than trusting you to resist. Willpower is a resource the phone is already draining.

Why “just use willpower” fails, and what works instead

Limits work.

In a field experiment, app-specific limits reduced use of the limited app by about a third (33%).6

Pauses work — surprisingly well.

A 2023 study in PNAS tested a short pause before a chosen app opens. 36% of opening attempts were abandoned during the pause, and use of those apps fell by 57% over six weeks.7 This is the mechanism behind our soft block.

Cutting back changes how you feel.

In a randomised trial, students who capped social media at 30 minutes a day for three weeks saw depression scores fall by about 35% among those who started high.8 Deactivating social media for a month delivered roughly a quarter to nearly half the benefit of a course of therapy.9

Pleasant friction sticks; harsh friction doesn’t.

Turning the screen greyscale is one of the most effective single tweaks — about 38 minutes a day saved — and most people abandon it because they dislike it.10 That gap between effective and tolerable is why FreeInFive lets you earn time back rather than simply locking you out.

Why we make you move

Short bursts of movement are one of the best-studied ways to interrupt a craving. In a randomised trial, a 15-minute walk delayed smokers’ next cigarette by 57 minutes compared with sitting still.11 Pooling nineteen trials and 930 participants, researchers concluded there is “strong evidence that physical activity acutely reduces cigarette craving.”12 The same pattern appears for sugary snacks.13

Movement also sharpens self-control in the window right afterwards. A meta-analysis of 17 studies found a large improvement in the ability to ignore distractions immediately after moderate exercise.14

Honest note

These studies used bouts of 5 to 30 minutes, and they measured urges for cigarettes and food, not phones. Nobody has yet run the study on scrolling. We think the mechanism transfers — a cue-triggered urge is a cue-triggered urge — but we’re telling you it’s an inference, not a finding.

Why we make you breathe

Slow breathing calms the nervous system — that part is well known. What’s less known is when. Across 223 studies, the calming effect on heart-rate variability was roughly four times stronger while people were breathing slowly than in the minutes after they stopped.15 Calm, it turns out, is something you pass through rather than store.

That’s exactly what a soft block is: a 30-second gate you breathe through before deciding whether you still want to open the app.

Early evidence suggests even a single minute helps. In a preregistered real-world pilot, one minute of paced breathing during a stressful moment reduced anxiety within five minutes and reduced impulsive errors on an attention test.16 And in a randomised trial, five minutes a day of long-exhale breathing improved mood more than five minutes of meditation.17

Why we ask you to schedule

Deciding in advance when you’ll do something changes whether you do it. In a classic experiment, people who wrote down when and where they’d exercise followed through 91% of the time, versus 39% for people who were motivated but hadn’t planned.18 Across 94 studies, these “if-then” plans show a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals.19

Your FreeInFive schedule is that plan, set once.

What we don’t claim

  • We don’t claim FreeInFive users save a specific number of hours. We’ll publish that when we have the data.
  • We don’t claim to treat or cure anything.
  • We don’t claim a 10-push-up reset restores your attention — the research above used longer bouts. We use short resets because they’re the ones people actually do.
  • Where a finding rests on one small study, we’ve said so.

If you think we’ve cited something wrongly, email hello@bloomeasy.ai and we’ll fix it.

References

  1. ↩Harmony Healthcare IT. Screen Time Statistics 2025. US adult smartphone use.
  2. ↩DataReportal / Statista. Digital 2025 Global Overview Report.
  3. ↩Rideout V, Peebles A, Mann S, Robb MB. The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens, 2021. Common Sense Media, 2022.
  4. ↩Allcott H, Gentzkow M, Song L. Digital Addiction. American Economic Review 2022;112(7):2424–63.
  5. ↩Ward AF, Duke K, Gneezy A, Bos MW. Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research 2017;2(2):140–54.
  6. ↩Hoong R. Self control and smartphone use: An experimental study of soft commitment devices. European Economic Review 2021;140:103924.
  7. ↩Grüning DJ, Riedel F, Lorenz-Spreen P. Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec. PNAS 2023;120(8):e2213114120.
  8. ↩Hunt MG, Marx R, Lipson C, Young J. No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 2018;37(10):751–68.
  9. ↩Allcott H, Braghieri L, Eichmeyer S, Gentzkow M. The Welfare Effects of Social Media. American Economic Review 2020;110(3):629–76.
  10. ↩Rahmillah FI, Tariq A, King M, Oviedo-Trespalacios O. Evaluating the Effectiveness of Apps Designed to Reduce Mobile Phone Use and Prevent Maladaptive Mobile Phone Use. JMIR 2023;25:e42541.
  11. ↩Taylor A, Katomeri M. Walking reduces cue-elicited cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms, and delays ad libitum smoking. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 2007;9(11):1183–90.
  12. ↩Haasova M, Warren FC, Ussher M, et al. The acute effects of physical activity on cigarette cravings: systematic review and meta-analysis with individual participant data. Addiction 2013;108(1):26–37.
  13. ↩Ledochowski L, Ruedl G, Taylor AH, Kopp M. Acute Effects of Brisk Walking on Sugary Snack Cravings in Overweight People. PLoS ONE 2015;10(3):e0119278.
  14. ↩Dkaidek TS, Broadbent DP, Bishop DT. The effects of an acute bout of ergometer cycling on young adults’ executive function: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness 2023;21(4):326–44.
  15. ↩Laborde S, Allen MS, Borges U, et al. Effects of voluntary slow breathing on heart rate and heart rate variability: A systematic review and a meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 2022;138:104711.
  16. ↩Riedl EM, Bracklo T, Wimmer K, et al. Simply breathing anxiety away? A pilot, just-in-time ecological momentary intervention study of one-minute cyclic sighing versus box breathing. Anxiety, Stress & Coping 2026;39(5):608–22.
  17. ↩Balban MY, Neri E, Kogon MM, et al. Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine 2023;4(1):100895.
  18. ↩Milne S, Orbell S, Sheeran P. Combining motivational and volitional interventions to promote exercise participation. British Journal of Health Psychology 2002;7(2):163–84.
  19. ↩Gollwitzer PM, Sheeran P. Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 2006;38:69–119.