Most bedrooms have a phone on the nightstand, a router down the hall, and Bluetooth running all night. Plenty of people never think about it. Others find that a few small changes make their bedroom feel calmer. Here are three you can try tonight. They are free, they take less than a minute, and you can undo them in the morning.
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1. Put your phone in airplane mode
Your phone keeps talking to cell towers, Wi-Fi, and nearby Bluetooth devices all night, even while you sleep. Airplane mode stops those transmissions. Check that Bluetooth is off too, since some phones leave it on in airplane mode. A bonus: no late-night notifications pulling you back to the screen.
2. Better yet, move the phone out of the bedroom
If you use your phone as an alarm, swap it for a simple battery-powered clock. A basic quartz or LCD clock doesn’t transmit anything. Many people find the bigger change is behavioral: with no phone in reach, there is no last scroll before sleep and no first scroll on waking. We look at this more closely in Why Do Some People Prefer Device-Free Bedrooms?
3. Turn off your Wi-Fi router at night
Unless something in your home needs Wi-Fi overnight, switch the router off at bedtime and back on in the morning. A cheap outlet timer can do it for you. For what people notice and what researchers are studying, see Does Turning Off Wi-Fi at Night Help? and Can Wi-Fi Affect Sleep?
How to tell if it makes a difference for you
Some people notice a change and others notice nothing, and both are useful to know. The research on everyday signals and sleep is still unsettled, so the most reliable answer is your own. Try one change at a time for a week, and keep short notes on how you slept and how you felt in the morning. Our guides to keeping a simple sleep journal and running a personal environmental experiment walk you through it.
For more ideas, read How Can I Create a Calmer Bedroom Environment?
This article is for general information and is not medical advice. If sleep problems persist, talk to your doctor.