Just because there’s no conclusive evidence to show that having your phone near you when you sleep can cause cancer, doesn’t mean it’s exactly good for you.

Having your phone next to you in bed can wreak havoc on your sleep, which we know can be bad news for overall health and wellbeing. “Receiving notifications, scrolling through content, reading emails or chatting on the phone tend to be stimulating and can induce stress, thereby increasing alertness levels,” Dr Ioannou says.

This increased alertness not only makes it harder for you to nod off in the first place, but potentially decrease your chances of getting deep, restorative sleep. Having notifications on at night – whether in the form of sound, vibrations or simply your phone screen lighting up the room – can also break up your sleep and make it harder for you to get those later stages of sleep which are vital. Even ambient light can disrupt sleep, so you don’t need to be woken up by your phone lighting up for it to have an effect.

“Is sleeping with my phone next to me bad for my health?”