Note: This study found no significant biological effects under its experimental conditions. We include all studies for scientific completeness.
Do mobile phone base stations affect sleep of residents? Results from an experimental double-blind sham-controlled field study
Danker-Hopfe H, Dorn H, Bornkessel C, Sauter C · 2010
View Original AbstractAnxiety about cell towers disrupted sleep more than the electromagnetic fields themselves in this controlled study of 397 residents.
Plain English Summary
German researchers studied nearly 400 people living near experimental cell towers to see if radio waves from base stations affect sleep quality. After monitoring participants for 12 nights with both real and fake tower signals, they found no measurable differences in sleep patterns between the two conditions. However, people who were worried about health risks from cell towers did sleep worse during all test nights, suggesting anxiety rather than electromagnetic fields was affecting their rest.
Study Details
The aim of the present double‐blind, sham‐controlled, balanced randomized cross‐over study was to disentangle effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) and non‐EMF effects of mobile phone base stations on objective and subjective sleep quality.
In total 397 residents aged 18–81 years (50.9% female) from 10 German sites, where no mobile phone s...
Analysis of the subjective and objective sleep data did not reveal any significant differences betwe...
The study did not provide any evidence for short‐term physiological effects of EMF emitted by mobile phone base stations on objective and subjective sleep quality. However, the results indicate that mobile phone base stations as such (not the electromagnetic fields) may have a significant negative impact on sleep quality
Show BibTeX
@article{h_2010_do_mobile_phone_base_2745,
author = {Danker-Hopfe H and Dorn H and Bornkessel C and Sauter C},
title = {Do mobile phone base stations affect sleep of residents? Results from an experimental double-blind sham-controlled field study},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1002/ajhb.21053},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajhb.21053},
}