In 2013, Dr Michelle Short suggested we revamp our existing theoretical model of how technology affects sleep.

“We should look at the evidence for electromagnetic fields.”

And it’s a good thing we did, because - for example - both Michelle and I were seeing a client experiencing insomnia. The client said “I know the blue light from screens affects sleep so I don’t use screens.”

I provided my 3-min spiel why this wasn’t true by explaining our research - and others. The response was:

“Well, phones emit frequencies and they’re bad for you.”

Michelle then summarised the evidence she found on this topic to put the client at ease.

“No. I still think they’re bad for your health” the client concluded.

Michelle had scoured the evidence for mobile phones affecting sleep, and as much as we presented a summary of this evidence in our chapter of the The Oxford Handbook of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Sleep and Behavior - we could not reasonably add EMFs into our theoretical model.

But what’s happened in the past 8 years?

EMFs

Remember how people use to have a good book or two by their bedside? Well, books don’t give off EMFs (electromagnetic fields).

But smartphones do.

An EMF is a combination of electrical and magnetic fields. The type of EMF from a phone is a Radio Frequency (RF). Some concerns have been raised over the years that if these fields are positioned closely to someone’s brain - for example - that they could present as a health hazard.

Keep in mind that the brain generates its own electrical currents. That’s what we measure when we apply EEG to a person’s scalp. The gold-plated electrodes on the scalp receive the electric signal from the brain (which is in a waveform), and that tiny electrical signal is amplified so we can observe it.

So part of the concern is that the electric fields from devices placed near our brains for hours on end could disrupt the natural ‘electric dance’ in our brains when we sleep.

After all - the brain is highly active during sleep.

Without going into too much depth, the above arguments are somewhat logical.

But that’s where a lot of people stop. And thus they make their conclusion on logic.

At WINK, we go beyond the logical arguments - beyond the theory - and have a look at what the accumulation of scientific studies have to say.

After all, we thought it was logical that playing a violent videogame in the hour before bed would be stimulating and make it harder to fall asleep. But we were wrong (Weaver et al., 2010; King et al., 2013).

We also thought that the blue light emitted from screens in the hour before bed would do the same thing. But we were wrong (Heath et al., 2014).

Sleeping With The Enemy?

To be clear, it’s not just smartphones that have introduced EMFs into our homes.

You know that WiFi signal coming from your modem? Yep!

Now I know there will be some of you reading this who will begin to have a little doubt enter their minds, and a little bit of fear that has creeped into their hearts.

If you feel this, please consider the other side of the argument (blatant plug warning: this is a skill taught in cognitive therapy and we’ll be teaching it our Advanced Cognitive Therapy for Insomnia course that’ll be coming out in July).

If WiFi and smartphones cause not just sleep problems - but also health problems - wouldn’t such devices be removed from our daily lives? Especially considering how much people use them.

There’s plenty of organisations looking over the research in this field (mind the pun). I recommend checking out the European Commission’s ‘Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks’ (SCENIHR) website.

But back to sleep…

Last year, there was a longitudinal study of over 30,000 Scandinavians published (ie, one that follows people over time to see if things naturally change, and thus one thing leads to another) - and this study found little association between phones and sleep. When they did find a link, it was between phones and insomnia. But it was when calling on the phone.

So another way to determine if one thing causes another is to do an experiment in a laboratory. An experimental study published by Danker-Hopfe and colleagues in 2020 showed that the radio frequencies emitted from a simulated smartphone did not affect sleep.

If anything, their sleep was ever so slightly better! Which is incredible given the device was plastered to their head …

I am providing these summaries of 2020 studies because they’re really nice ways of testing this idea - plus it’s the lastest science. When stepping back and ‘looking at the forest’ (ie, the summary of the science), there’s a really nice paragraph by Danker-Hopfe and colleagues (2020) that sums it all up:

“Altogether, 20 studies looked at the macrostructure of sleep. Two studies investigated effects based on a daytime napping study, while all others considered night sleep. Eleven of them did not find an effect at all. Nine found selective effects, which are, however, quite heterogenous. The 20 studies vary in several aspects, signal type, exposure duration, age and gender.”

To interpret the above paragraph for you:

• Science tries to find the ‘truth’ in our world - and if something is true, 20 studies will be enough to find out.

• The ‘macrostructure’ of sleep can be considered as those things you are aware of (ie, how much you wake during the night) and others you are not aware of (ie, how much deep sleep you’re getting).

• If about 50% of studies find nothing, and then the other 50% find something, but what they found is not consistent with each other, then this is nothing to write home about.

• Conclusion? You can sleep with the enemy (just ensure you put airplane mode on).

Sleep Is A Skill

While we’re on the topic of phones and sleep, I got the opportunity to be interviewed in a couple of podcasts recently.

One of these was on the Sleep Is A Skill podcast, hosted by Mollie McGlocklin.

Mollie is like other people I’ve met during my travels. Not someone at a sleep conference, but other people who started a career in one area, and then became passionate about sleep.

Like Michael Herf who invented Picasa, but then got an interest in the colours emitted from devices. So he invented an app called f.lux (way before Apple came out with their Nightshift mode)!

Or Jeff Mann who became passionate about all things sleep and started his own sleep podcast series (Sleep Junkies) many years ago (and has became very knowledgeable about all things sleep).

Our digital world has allowed us to become incredibly knowledgeable about a given topic if we choose.

The issue though, is that everyone with an opinion can put something on the internet. This creates a lot of ‘noise’.

There’s a lot of noise on the internet about technology and sleep. And it’s noisier than our decade of published research on the internet.

So I’m stoked that I can get the science to the community in ways that traditional scientific methods cannot (ie, at conferences, in scientific journals).

So when you’ve got the time, have a listen to Episode 49 of the Sleep Is A Skill podcast. Mollie’s managed to interview other sleep scientists too so hear directly from them.

If the podcast doesn’t load up for you below, then you can try this link.

And if you wish to learn more about Technology and Sleep, you can Join our WINK Membership which includes a Live Q&A this month about this topic - plus heaps of other benefits.