The Mobile Phone at Night

What do you do if you can’t get to sleep at night? Do you find yourself rolling over and checking your phone?

Mobile phones in the bedroom can cause all sorts of problems.

Compulsively checking a mobile phone can cause anxiety and agitation. This seems to happen especially in the evening – one study showed people checking their phone up to every six seconds later at night. Maybe being tired makes people default to the easy option of checking their phone rather than starting a new task or doing anything taxing. Or as a form of procrastination rather than doing any last minute chores or beginning the process of going to bed. It could be that willpower is lower when tired so you automatically reach for your phone without really thinking about it.

While a lot of people use browsing the web to help them wind down the phone is actually sending very different messages to the body. The blue light from a phone screen is a very similar wavelength to sunlight. Our bodies use sunlight to regulate our sleeping patterns – called the circadian rhythm. But this extra blue light late at night disrupts that rhythm and our bodies don’t produce the sleep hormone, thinking it is still daytime.

Difficulty getting to sleep or disturbed sleep during the night can cause sleep deprivation. Not only does that result in feeling tired, irritable, accident prone and unable to concentrate but has longer term effects including stress, depression, obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  

A phone’s electromagnetic field is on whenever the phone is – even if not actively in use. So if you sleep with your phone under your pillow or by your bed you could have mobile phone radiation passing through your body all night. Mobile phone radiation is a “possible carcinogen” according to the World Health Organisation and increasing numbers of studies show it is responsible for male infertility and linked to brain cancer.

WaveWall has a range of clever products to help you make the most of your phone without any of the harmful side effects. WaveWall anti-radiation cases block 87% of radiation from getting to your body, and WaveWall Sleep is a blue light filter and screen protector. WaveWall Sleep Glass is our toughest screen protector yet, with tempered glass to protect both your phone and your sleep.

Do you use your mobile a lot at night? Do you worry about what it could be doing to your health and your sleep? 

Share your thoughts in the comments below!