A study from Stanford University found that 75% of the 200 students surveyed slept with their cell phones next to them on a nightstand or under their pillow. Almost three-quarters of 18 to 44 year olds sleep with their phones within reach, according to a 2012 Time/Qualcomm poll. The odds are that you and most people you know are sleeping with smartphones.
Smartphones can be useful at night to send a text, check the time, set an alarm, look at the calendar, use as a flashlight, read a book, and so much more. However, does the small radiation that the phone emits warrant concern? Here’s some compelling evidence as to why sleeping with a smartphone may keep you from being your best the next day.
Why You Should Not Sleep Near Your Smartphone
Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range. Sleeping with a phone nearby boosts your radiation exposure just a bit, which can prevent an optimal sleep cycle. Smartphones affect deep non-REM sleep, which leaves less time for bloodflow to be directed to your muscles. Therefore in the morning, you may experience lack of concentration, soreness, and focused performance.
“Anything that disrupts the integrity of your sleep will potentially have adverse consequences in functioning during the day, such as grouchiness, difficulty concentrating, and in children hyperactivity and behaviour problems,” says Dr. William Kohler of the Florida Sleep Institute.
Five ninth-grade girls from Denmark observed these very consequences and noticed they couldn’t concentrate the morning after sleeping with their phones. So they performed a science experiment: Take 400 cress seeds (edible herb related to watercress) and split them into 12 trays, placing the trays in two rooms at the same temperature, six in each room. Give the trays the same amount of water and sunlight for 12 days, but expose six of the trays to mobile phone radiation. The girls had WiFi routers emit the same level of electromagnetic energy as a cell phone.
As you can see, the results are dramatic. The plants in the non-electromagnified room grew, while those situated next to the routers didn’t grow at all or died.
“None of us sleep with our mobile phones at our bedside any more. Either we keep them at a distance or in another room,” said one of the students.
Taking Precautions with Cell Phone Radiation
Two years ago, the International Agency for Research on Cancer rated smartphones as “group 2B”, which means they may cause cancer in humans (study here – subscription required). Mobile phones are still a relatively new technology, so it will still take years to fully understand what, if any, adverse side effects cell phone radiation will have. Let’s take the “better safe than sorry” approach and take a few precautions:
Try an experiment if you sleep with your smartphone. Put it in another room for a week, and don’t look at it immediately before bed. See if you notice any significant change in your mornings and please report back your findings.
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This article was written by HostDime’s Content Marketer Jared Smith.
And that is why my smartphone and I chose to sleep in separate beds.
I think I need to get a regular alarm clock and leave the phone in another room.
Yeah right, smartphone has its advantage and disadvantages and I felt grateful to you for sharing us this information.
Does sleeping one night with phone also give effect to brain?
Airplane mode s d best solution in my case…at present….
Inaccurate article. The experiment with the cress seeds is faulty. First of all, all the WiFi routers emit 100mW of RF power (FCC Regulations) while the mobile phone will reach 2W (2000mW). So the statement “The girls had WiFi routers emit the same level of electromagnetic energy as a cell phone.” is wrong! So obviously the conclusion of the entire experiment is wrong if the premise is wrong… What really happened is that the routers consumed all the humidity from the air and dried the seeds. Simple just like that.
I would believe someone saying it ruins your feng shui way more than these idiotic “a research from the university of…” arguments and I’m not superticious
You just said you aren’t superstitious yet you said you’d believe someone saying it ruins your feng shui.
EMF and radiation is real, feng shui on the other hand….
On a similar note, I recommend utilizing a blue light filter if you spend any time looking at screens before bed.
Mike, simply put, you are incorrect.
HI Sir
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Yeah, there are many reasons why a smartphone can explode.
you have done a great job your post is very helpful for headphone users.
Well i’m done so. Bacteria part was disgusting but sadly true.
If you sleep with your smartphone in bed, SAR rating is the least of your problems…..
When I get home, I switch my phone to airplane more, I leave it downstairs, and I do not touch it until the next morning.
Same thing on the weekends. I have a life, not a smartphone addiction!
Back in the 80’s we had analog TV, awesome rack sound systems, wired phones, VCRs, and we lived happy lives. No digital leash for me! You can keep your big brother tracking devices away from me 🙂
l agree with you
@MP it would sure suck to be you in any sort of emergency that required the police or a 911 phone call.. good luck getting downstairs to your phone, or any other means of communication that involves technology that you seem to be so against, in the event that your house is burning down or being burglarized or you or anyone else who might be over gets robbed at gunpoint, happens to get shot,or suffers from sort of life threatening health ailment where time is critical. What if someone were to break into your house with the intent of hurting/killing you, you’re up stairs,&since your phone is downstairs, that person grabs it to completely prevent you from being able to use it to call for help? If it were somewhere near you, you’d have more of a chance of being able to get to it&use it before they’d make it upstairs to you. And although these scenarios might seem far fetched, they’re not. Not at all. My house was robbed at gunpoint in the middle of the day which resulted in my neighbor being shot when he heard me screaming and came to help.. had my phone been off somewhere inaccessible, my neighbor may not have survived. I understand where you’re coming from, but theres more than one means of extreme..and although being unhealthily attached/glued to or reliant upon technology, theres also the extreme on the other end of the spectrum..neither is healthy. there has to be a balance. And fyi…that “big brother tracking” has saved more lives than you can count..another personal experience I can vouch for.. in college, a large group of my friends and I went to a house party out of town, I was already a lil tipsy so of course, I didn’t drive&I wasnt at all familiar with this city anyway as I had never been there before.. Shortly after arriving, this guy that was sitting on the couch was clearly in need of some help. Idk what he took, or if he took something that didn’t mix with alcohol,idk..all I do know, is dude was dying. His face was pale, his lips were purple and blue, his jaw was locked and he was frothing from the mouth &once I got super close(to perform CPR)you could hear that he was making these gurgling sounds..he was dying. I proceeded to give him CPR while i also called 911.. i had no idea where i was at. This party was so massive that no one was even phased by me trying to save this dudes life..no one could hear me screaming that he needed help&I needed the address…im not even sure if the dispatcher could really hear what I was saying or not, but it was the location of my phone that they used to figure out where I was at so they could send paramedics..I found out later that the guy did survive & was told that had I not called 911..he wouldnt have. But in reality, it was the location pinning/tracking abilities that saved his life..cuz you can call 911, but they cant help you if they cant get to you&w/out that, idk think they ever would have. There was no physical address or house number anywhere on the outside and the house was in the middle of a very long block-¬ your typical neighborhood block either..the nearest street sign was at least 1/4-1/2 mile away. Basically, it’s not as evil as you’re trying to portray. It has/does served good&proven to be useful just as much, if not more, than it has proven to be negative or harmful. That’s all I’m saying..
It’s a common misconception that it’s okay to sleep with your phone under the pillow.