Cell phones and insomnia

You probably saw the news: Radiation from cell phones can wreck your sleep.

The researchers say that they have a good study and a good conclusion; the cell phone manufacturers, who sponsored the study say that it is flawed and inconclusive. What's a sleep doctor to do?

The details of the study are not published, as far as I can tell. The study was conducted by researchers in Sweden and in Michigan. The study involved 35 men and 36 women aged 18 to 45. Before sleep they were exposed to radiation similar to that of a cell phone—but not an actual cell phone. Others in the group were treated in the same way but did not receive the radiation (sham radiation or control group). About one-half of the people considered themselves "electro-sensitive," but none of the participants could tell if they were receiving the real or the sham radiation.

Again, I was not able to find details today about the exact protocol used. Sleep was assessed with standard sleep studies as far as I can tell. Subjects who received the radiation took longer to reach sleep wave (deep) sleep, and had less of this deep stage of sleep. The researchers concluded that radiation from a cell phone adversely affects sleep.

I do not know if this is true—it is only one study and it should be considered preliminary. I am not sure if people who are "electrosensitive" are the same of normal people, for example. I will await the final report on this study, and another one before making recommendations.

Could radiation affect sleep? It is theoretically possible. We tested a radiation device from Symtonic a few years ago as a way to treat insomnia, but it did not help. Wikipedia has a good review of the possible health effects of radiation.

For now, it might make sense to use a "hands-free" approach, which places the radiation farther away from your  brain, and has also been recommended as safer while driving.

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