Individual differences in the effects of mobile phone exposure on human sleep: Rethinking the problem
Loughran SP, McKenzie RJ, Jackson ML, Howard ME, Croft RJ. · 2012
View Original AbstractCell phone radiation measurably alters brain activity during sleep, but effects vary by individual, suggesting previous 'no effect' studies may have missed real impacts.
Plain English Summary
Australian researchers exposed 20 people to cell phone radiation before sleep and monitored their brain waves. The radiation increased brain activity during deep sleep, but effects varied greatly between individuals. This suggests previous studies may have missed real impacts by averaging results across all participants.
Why This Matters
This research addresses a critical flaw in how we've been studying EMF health effects. For years, the wireless industry has pointed to studies showing 'no effect' as proof of safety. But this study reveals why those conclusions may be wrong. When researchers looked at individual responses rather than group averages, they found clear evidence that cell phone radiation alters brain activity during sleep. The exposure level (SAR of 0.674 W/kg) is within the range of typical cell phone use, making these findings directly relevant to your nightly routine. What makes this particularly significant is the researchers' conclusion that we need to 'rethink' how EMF research is conducted. The reality is that biological systems don't respond uniformly. Some people may be more sensitive to EMF exposure than others, and when you average sensitive and non-sensitive responses together, you can mask real effects. This study demonstrates that the absence of evidence in previous research isn't evidence of absence.
Exposure Details
- SAR
- 0.11 and 0.674 W/kg
- Source/Device
- 894.6 MHz
- Exposure Duration
- continuous for 30 min
Where This Falls on the Concern Scale
Study Details
We hypothesised that these differences might partly be due to individual variability in response, and that mobile phone emissions may in fact have large but differential effects on human brain activity.
Twenty volunteers from our previous study underwent an adaptation night followed by two experimental...
The EEG spectral power was increased in the sleep spindle frequency range in the first 30 min of no...
Show BibTeX
@article{sp_2012_individual_differences_in_the_130,
author = {Loughran SP and McKenzie RJ and Jackson ML and Howard ME and Croft RJ.},
title = {Individual differences in the effects of mobile phone exposure on human sleep: Rethinking the problem},
year = {2012},
doi = {10.1002/bem.20691},
url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.20691},
}