October 13, 2005
Study: The impact of mobile phone use immediately before bedtime on the brain and sleep patterns
The quality of sleep for Australia's 12 million mobile phone users is not affected by calls on mobiles before bedtime, according to the world's largest independent study into mobile phones and sleep quality. Cellular News reports.
"Although the results showed there were differences in the brain's electrical activity in the initial part of sleep as a result of using a mobile before bedtime, this had no affect on sleep variables such as the time it takes to get to sleep, the length of time asleep or whether the person slept lightly or deeply and therefore does not affect the overall quality of a person's sleep.
Conducted by Swinburne's Brain Sciences Institute as part of a larger investigation funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, the study examined the impact of mobile phone use immediately before bedtime on the brain and sleep patterns.
PhD student, Sarah Loughran, undertook the study and said the results indicate that using a mobile phone before going to sleep does not appear to influence whether a person has a good night's sleep.
"These results are especially relevant to adolescents and young people who are probably the biggest users of mobile phones late at night."
cf also another article with a different take, from PC World, entitled "Cell Phones Affect Brain Waves, Study Says".
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