Brain Health Blog

By Lumos Labs Science Associate Paul Li, MS Neuroscience.

This post is a follow-up to our previous post on the role cell phones play in increasing the level of awareness. Recently, a different group of researchers have found evidence that using your cell phone before heading to bed can delay reaching the deep stages of sleep. This effect seems to be caused by radiation emitted by cell phones. As you might know, there are 5 stages of sleep that one normally goes through each night, and proper sleep can help to improve memory processing and consolidation. Although the findings may not come as a surprise to you given the results from the previous study, this is especially informative to teenagers and to others who frequently talk on their cell phone before sleeping. Professor Bengt Arnetz, who led the study, believes that cell phone radiation may activate the brain’s stress system “making people more alert and more focused, and decreasing their ability to wind down and fall asleep”.