Safe sleep next — The radiation question is mostly settled — phones next to your bed are physically safe. The sleep-disruption question is the real concern. Our team explains both.
Hannah on our team gets asked this every couple of months. Short answer: physically safe, behaviourally awful. Here’s the longer version.
The radiation question (Safe sleep next)
Mobile phones emit radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic radiation in the 700 MHz to 2.6 GHz range. This is “non-ionising” — it doesn’t have enough energy to break chemical bonds or damage DNA. Decades of research, including the 5G-era reviews from ARPANSA (Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency), the WHO and ICNIRP, show no clear evidence of harm at typical exposure levels. Phones in airplane mode emit no RF at all; phones in standby emit very little.
The behavioural question (the real one)
- Notifications. 44.5% of Australians have been woken by a notification in the past month. Even silent vibrations can shift sleep stages.
- Light. Lock-screen pings emit short bursts of light — enough to fragment REM cycles in light sleepers.
- Use-on-waking. 80% of Australians check their phone within 15 minutes of waking. Doomscrolling at the bedside elevates morning cortisol.
- Sleep procrastination. Phones at the bedside extend bedtime — “I’ll just check…” costs an average of 18 minutes a night.
See our smartphone statistics piece for the data.
If you must keep it on the bedside
- Enable Do Not Disturb / Focus on a schedule (e.g. 9:30 pm to 7 am).
- Disable lock-screen notifications entirely.
- Turn the phone face-down so the screen can’t pulse light.
- Use airplane mode if you don’t need to be reachable.
The better option
Charge the phone in another room and use a real alarm clock — see our Australian alarm clock round-up. The single biggest sleep-quality intervention most adults can make. We know — we’re telling people to leave the phone behind, and most won’t. Try it for a week.
Children and phones at bedside
Stronger case for not. Younger ipRGCs in children’s eyes are more sensitive to nighttime light, and the social/notification anxiety is more disruptive. Phone-free bedrooms remain the recommendation from the Sleep Health Foundation for under-18s.
For independent guidance on sleep and wellbeing, the Sleep Health Foundation is a good starting point.
