Credit: Getty
6 min read
Is charging your phone next to your bed at night a bad idea? A doctor and nurse explain.
Welcome back to Just Curious, Strong Women’s weekly series exploring all the random health and fitness questions you’ve always wondered about but never got the answer to.
This week, we’re exploring whether it’s OK to sleep with your phone on the bedside table next to you, or whether that’s a really bad idea.
Sticking your phone on charge on your bedside table before you go to sleep has become one of those habits most of us do without even thinking about it. Whether you use your phone as an alarm, prefer to keep it nearby for late-night calls and texts or just like to scroll through social media before bed, having your phone within arm’s reach is convenient.
But at a time when lots of us are reassessing our relationships with technology, you might be questioning whether it’s a good idea to sleep so close to your phone.
We already know that using your phone before bed isn’t good for sleep, and some people claim that the radiation our phones give off can be dangerous in close proximity, such as on our nightstand. It’s for this reason some people worry that phone use can cause cancer.
There’s been a lot of hysteria in the past around phone signals and the threat they pose to our health (anyone remember the 5G/Covid-19 conspiracy?), so knowing what’s actually true when it comes to mobile phones can be tricky. Can sleeping with your phone next to you have negative effects? And if so, what are they?
To sort the facts from the fiction, we spoke to Dr Nicola Ioannou, an NHS GP, and Rosanne Joseph-Anthony, founder and clinical director at Healthium Clinics and a trained nurse.
Can sleeping with your phone next to you cause cancer?
Many people are understandably concerned about whether sleeping next to their phone at night is bad for them – especially when it comes to its potential link to cancer.
But both Dr Ioannou and Joseph-Anthony are keen to stress that there is little to no compelling evidence that suggests being near to your phone can cause cancer.
“The concern about mobile phones causing cancer comes from the link between ionising radiation and an elevated risk of cancer, which has been observed following higher exposure to hazardous, high-energy forms of radiation such as x-rays and radioactive gases,” Dr Ioannou explains. “However, this concern is based on a misconception, since the radiation emitted by mobile phones belongs to the non-ionising, radio frequency spectrum, which is characterised by lower energy and frequency levels.”
Because the waves emitted by mobile phones are low in volume, energy and frequency, they’re much lower in risk compared to high-energy radiation, which can damage DNA.
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And while some early research has suggested a possible link between this kind of radiation and cancer, subsequent research has not supported this claim. In 2011, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) listed the radiofrequency radiation emitted by phones as ‘possibly carcinogenic to humans’ because of limited evidence of a link between mobile use and an increased risk of brain cancer.
However, many of the studies that have found a possible link relied on people quantifying their mobile phone use after they were diagnosed with cancer, so results may be biased.
Indeed, in 2022, Oxford University published a study in partnership with the IARC which relied on data from the Million Women Study, a study of one in four UK women born between 1935 and 1950. The women were quizzed about their mobile phone usage in 2001 and then again in 2011, and researchers had access to their medical records. In the end, they found there was no significant difference in the risk of developing a brain tumour between the women who never used a mobile phone and those who did.
There is no clear evidence
“The fear that sleeping with your phone next to you can cause cancer is a topic that has generated concern and debate, but it’s essential to rely on scientific evidence and research to address these fears accurately,” Joseph-Anthony says.
“Numerous epidemiological studies have been conducted to investigate the potential link between phone use and cancer, and so far, the overall scientific consensus is that there is no clear evidence of a casual relationship between cell phone use and cancer in humans.”
It is worth noting that widespread mobile phone use hasn’t been around for that long, so none of the research can be 100% conclusive when it comes to the long-term health impact. However, as stands, there is very little reason for concern.
Is sleeping with your phone next to you bad for you?
Credit: Getty
Just because there’s no conclusive evidence to show that having your phone near you when you sleep can cause cancer, doesn’t mean it’s exactly good for you.
Having your phone next to you in bed can wreak havoc on your sleep, which we know can be bad news for overall health and wellbeing. “Receiving notifications, scrolling through content, reading emails or chatting on the phone tend to be stimulating and can induce stress, thereby increasing alertness levels,” Dr Ioannou says.
This increased alertness not only makes it harder for you to nod off in the first place, but potentially decrease your chances of getting deep, restorative sleep. Having notifications on at night – whether in the form of sound, vibrations or simply your phone screen lighting up the room – can also break up your sleep and make it harder for you to get those later stages of sleep which are vital. Even ambient light can disrupt sleep, so you don’t need to be woken up by your phone lighting up for it to have an effect.
There have also been fears that having a mobile phone close to you can impact fertility – especially when it comes to sperm count in men. However, the research in this area is still limited, and when it comes to women in particular, there’s very little concrete research. And unless you’re sleeping with your phone on your stomach, chances are you’ve got a solid amount of distance between your phone and reproductive organs anyway.
Charging your phone next to or on top of your bed can also present safety concerns, Joseph-Anthony adds: “Leaving your phone charging especially on a flammable surface like a bed, pillow, or mattress, can pose a fire hazard, and overheating of the phone or charger, electrical shorts, or faulty batteries can lead to a fire. This risk is heightened when the phone is covered or surrounded by soft materials that can catch fire easily.”
How to use your mobile phone safely
At the end of the day, there’s probably no harm to sleeping with your phone charging next to you, but there are some steps you can take to reduce any possible risk and negate the impact your phone can have on your sleep.
“To promote better sleep hygiene, consider placing the mobile phone in another room overnight,” Dr Ioannou recommends. “If you need to keep it in your room, position it at a distance that’s less accessible and ensure notifications are turned off. These practices can help to reduce disturbances to sleep patterns and contribute to overall wellbeing.”
Making sure your phone is charging in a safe space where the heat from the charger can disperse easily is also important.
If your phone is also your alarm clock, an easy way to shake things up is to invest in a digital alarm clock. That way, you can move your phone to another spot to charge at night, and you won’t be inclined to scroll before you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning.
Images: Getty
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