Why you should avoid keeping your mobile phone near you while sleeping at Night.

For most people, the last thing you do before going to sleep is to press phone and the first thing upon wakening up is to check through your phone. Do you find yourself in the category of people that always keep your mobile phone next to your bed at night?

Or most time you just find yourself fall asleep unknowingly while pressing your phone and the next thing is waking up in the morning to see your mobile phone close to your pillow.

Health Implications?

What is the health implication? How might this impact your ability to sleep? All these scenarios are what is common to most mobile user.

Mobile or smartphones are now part of our daily lives and we can barely do without them. Consider how this routine (trend) may have some harmful effects and impact you having a better sleep.

In this post, I’m going to enlighten you on why you should avoid sleeping close to your mobile phone because I see many people especially young people place their mobile phone beneath their pillow which may be hazardous to the body.

I have heard people say “I couldn’t sleep” or “I slept late” or “sleep no gree come (Nigeria pidgin)”. Why? This is basically because mobile phones are believed to give off Blue Light- a type that studies have suggested that it can affect the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and disrupt our circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms may mean difficulties falling asleep or staying awake at the appropriate time.

This may mean that blue light emits wavelengths similar to daylight, deceiving our bodies to think that its day time at any time.

Generally, keeping your phone near you during sleep hours (at night) may prompt a compulsive desire to continue refreshing, checking, responding, scrolling, clicking, posting, or playing games which exposes your eyes to blue light causing a reduction in sleep or Insomnia- Difficulty/trouble falling asleep.

Furthermore, keeping your phone near you at night may put your health at risk due to emitted radiation. Studies have revealed that mobile phone gives off electromagnetic radiation (EMR) which is a combination of electrical and magnetic energy that travels through space at the speed of light.

This radiation when it is high, it has a thermal effect; that is, it raises the body temperature and there are also concerns that it can cause headaches or brain tumors and body pain.

As affirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2011, that the usage is “possibly carcinogenic for humans, especially in children because they are more vulnerable to radiation.”

So how close you keep the phone to your body determines the level of radiofrequency (RF) radiation you are exposed to which may be intense if the signal from your phone to the base station is weak. And when it is close to your head while sleeping, you might wake up with headache, body pain, or body weakness.

It is however important to be conscious of your health and put technology in its place. While technology is important, health is also very vital.

So what should you do?

• Take your phone far away from your bedside. You can put it to charge in another room or kitchen.

• Get an alarm clock if you need an alarm to wake you up instead of using your phone’s alarm clock. This is to avoid keeping it with you during sleep hours.

• Reduce phone screen brightness so as to reduce your eyes exposure to direct light which gives off blue light.

• You can switch off, silence it, or put your phone in airplane mode so as not to have any interaction with it during sleep hours.

Mobile devices are designed to enhance our lives but they should not intrude in our healthy living.

So I hope you have gained something reading this post. If you find this helpful, I will be glad to see your comment in the comment section below.