Mobile phone radiation wrecks your sleep

Phone makers own scientists discover that bedtime use can lead to headaches, confusion and depression

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
The Independent (UK)
Sunday, 20 January 2008

Radiation from mobile phones delays and reduces sleep, and causes headaches and confusion, according to a new study.

The research, sponsored by the mobile phone companies themselves, shows that using the handsets before bed causes people to take longer to reach the deeper stages of sleep and to spend less time in them, interfering with the body's ability to repair damage suffered during the day.

The findings are especially alarming for children and teenagers, most of whom – surveys suggest – use their phones late at night and who especially need sleep. Their failure to get enough can lead to mood and personality changes, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, lack of concentration and poor academic performance.

The study – carried out by scientists from the blue-chip Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University in Sweden and from Wayne State University in Michigan, USA – is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind.

Perchance to Dream's comment: This is a major finding, and if it is confirmed by further research, it should really change our mobile-phoning habits. Deep, slow-wave sleep is an essential component of the sleep cycle, and is thought to account for the major part of sleep's purely restorative function. Anything that undermines slow-wave sleep is going to be a big no-no from a health point-of-view.

Wise precautions for now: Make those late-night calls on the land line or VOIP. Or better yet, observe an hour of meditative silence prior to sleep. Mmmm.

Read full story

Thanks to my friend and collaborator Patricio Simon for heads-upping this story!