A technology advisor at TMB Tech, Akin Ibitoye, on Monday warned Nigerians about the health and safety dangers of sleeping with mobile phones under their pillows or beside their beds.
Speaking on Morning Brief on Channels Television, Mr Ibitoye stressed that mobile devices can disrupt sleep, affect mental health and even pose fire risks due to overheating lithium-ion batteries.
“Do not sleep with your gadget under your pillow,” he cautioned. “When you sleep with your devices under your pillow, it actually affects you. You don’t know.”
Beyond blue light exposure, which interferes with the body’s circadian rhythm and sleep cycle, Ibitoye explained that the mere presence of a smartphone in the bedroom can degrade sleep quality, increase irritability and contribute to long-term health problems.
“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 said.
Ibitoye also pointed to the psychological toll of “doomscrolling”—the habit of endlessly scrolling through social media late into the night. “We spoke about doomscrolling, where you just want to check Instagram for about five minutes, but you end up spending two hours,” he noted.
Ibitoye urged people to return to traditional alarm clocks, saying phones at night are a source of constant distraction.
For those who insist on keeping phones nearby for emergencies, he advised using airplane mode. “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,” he said.
Highlighting real-world incidents, he recalled videos showing phones exploding due to overheating, especially when left under pillows or blankets.
“These batteries, lithium-ion batteries, you notice they don’t allow them on airplanes for good reasons. This tiny marvel of technology can explode any time. If you keep your phone under your pillow, your phone actually gets heated up,” he said.
“Sleeping with your phone or your tablet under your pillow is actually a huge risk that you do not want to take,” he added.
Even when a phone appears off, Ibitoye said, it can emit electromagnetic signals that interfere with brain activity.
He recommended using wired or wireless earphones to minimise exposure and keeping phones away from the head during sleep.
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