we sell broadband, so this is not the most obvious thing for us to write about. but people do ask whether the wi-fi is affecting their sleep, so here is the straight answer, and then the part that is actually worth your time.
the signal itself is not the problem. what arrives over it, at eleven at night, is a different matter.
the straight answer first
a home router sends out radio waves at a tiny fraction of the exposure limits the uk works to, and there is no good evidence they affect sleep. you do not need to unplug it at night for your health. the phone on the pillow is the bit worth dealing with, and that is what the rest of this is about.
what actually keeps a house awake
three things, and none of them are the router.
bright screens late in the evening make it harder to wind down, which is why the nhs suggests putting them away before bed. an hour is the usual advice.
one notification is enough to wake someone properly, and then they check it, and then they are awake. a phone that charges downstairs cannot do that.
nothing online is designed to stop. autoplay, endless feeds and a queue that never empties are all working against an early night, and willpower is not a plan.
four things you can do tonight
set a schedule instead of a rule. a wi-fi schedule turns the phones and tablets off at a set time every night, by itself. nobody has to remember, and nobody has to argue about it at half ten.
give each person their own cut-off. the kids' tablets can stop at nine while yours carries on. schedules run per device, so one household can have four different bedtimes.
charge the phone in another room. the oldest advice there is, and still the one that works best. if it doubles as your alarm, a cheap clock solves it for a few pounds.
move the router out of the bedroom. not for your health. because the middle of the house is a better spot for everyone, and a bedside router is one more set of blinking lights you do not need. our guide to where the router should go covers the rest.
it is all in the app
schedules and pausing are built into the my home telecom app, alongside your speed test and your network settings. set a bedtime once and it runs every night. pause a device and it comes straight back on when you say so.
we would rather you used less of your broadband at midnight than more of it. a schedule is free, it is already in the app, and it takes about a minute to set. 🌱
common questions
no. a home router sends out radio waves at a small fraction of the exposure limits the uk follows, and there is no evidence they affect sleep. what keeps people awake is what arrives over the connection, not the connection.
you can, but you do not need to, and it means no updates, no smart devices and no alarm that relies on the internet. a schedule that pauses the phones and tablets is the gentler version, and it does the same job.
yes. the app groups devices by person, so the kids' tablets can go off at nine while yours stays on. everyone gets their own schedule.
no. pausing only stops that device using your wi-fi. calls and texts run over the mobile network and carry on as normal, which matters if a phone doubles as the alarm clock.
somewhere central, at about chest height, out in the open, on the floor you use most. a hallway shelf usually beats a bedside table for everyone in the house.
