• Question: should we keep our mobile phones next to our beds when we sleep?

    Asked by to Mark, Matthew, Mike, Paul, Sabina on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Paul Coxon

      Paul Coxon answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      I keep my mobile near to my bed, because it’s next to the socket for my charger and I use it as an alarm clock.

      Some people worry about using mobile phones or tablets in bed at night because the artificial light they give out has a slight blue colour to it. Exposure to blue light suppresses a hormone called melatonin that the body normally releases at night to help us sleep. This blue light interferes with the body’s natural rhythm, effectively making the body think it’s still daytime and so harder for us to fall asleep.

      This is a real problem in situations where people are exposed to artificial light over long periods, such as astronauts living inside the International Space Station. NASA is developing new LEDs which change colour over time in order to mimic natural daylight on Earth. In the morning they have a slight blue hue, changing to red in the late afternoon/evening like Earth’s sky during a sunset.

      Here’s a cool video which explains more: http://mashable.com/2012/12/26/nasa-sleep-ligh/

    • Photo: Mike Lee

      Mike Lee answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      I have my mobile next to my bed too as I use it for an alarm clock.

    • Photo: Mark Jackson

      Mark Jackson answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      Yes. Because you might get a brilliant physics idea and need to call someone. Also I am waiting for Anne Hathaway to call me to say she needs some physics tutoring (http://goo.gl/y7Eofw). Since it will likely be late at night when she is feeling lonely, I don’t want to miss the call.

    • Photo: Matthew Malek

      Matthew Malek answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      No, you should put your mobile phone on the bureau or a window ledge a short distance away.

      This isn’t to protect you from radiation. I can assure you that your phone is not going to give you cancer from sleeping next to it. However, if your phone is within reach of your bed, you may be tempted to check your e-mail or surf the web right before bed. Studies have shown that this will affect the quality of your sleep, both from the light of the phone and also by keeping your brain functioning at high capacity, rather than winding down for rest.

      Even worse, if you wake up in the middle of the night, you might check your phone when you really should be rolling over and getting back to sleep!

      So don’t worry about cancer (at least from this!), but do put your phone a short distance away, out of arm’s reach. I promise that you’ll still be able to answer it if somebody calls! 🙂

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