An expert, Akin Ibitoye, has has explained why it is harmful to sleep with a mobile device under the pillow or beside the bed.
Ibitoye, Technology advisor at TMB Tech, who was speaking on the Morning Brief on Channels Television on Monday, said, “Do not sleep with your gadget under your pillow. When you sleep with your devices under your pillow, it actually affects you. You don’t know.”
Adding, he said, “These gadgets disrupt our circadian rhythm. That’s how, when it’s dark, your body gets the signal it needs to sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep, there are quite a number of things that even the medical practitioners have said could result negatively back to your body.”
He also identified “doomscrolling” as one of the hazards of uncontrolled used of mobile devices. Doomscrolling is the habit of spending hours online when the initial intention was to do a quick check of something.
He said, “Before mobile phones, we had alarm clocks. The alarm clock would only sound when the time is right.”
The expert lamented that phones attract unnecessary distractions at night with pop-ups and vibrations.
“Unless it’s absolutely tied to your work, you can do without your phone,” he said.
Speaking on other hazards of using mobile phones, he said, “These batteries, lithium-ion batteries, you notice they don’t allow them on airplanes for good reasons. This tiny marvel of technology can explode anytime. If you keep your phone under your pillow, your phone actually gets heated up.”
“These electromagnetic devices being so close, actually affect the electrical signals in our brain,” he added.
Ibitoye said, “If you cannot afford to switch it off, put it in airplane mode. No call will come in, no SMS, no notification, but your alarm will still go off.”
