We all know we shouldn’t really be sleeping with our iPhones under our pillows. We’ve all read those studies describing how the LED light from the screen gives us insomnia, and how keeping our phones so close to our brains all the time is bad for our health. But equally, who wants to get up, and go to another room to plug your phone in after you’ve been doing some light bedtime Tindering/Instagraming/secret Daily Mail reading? And what if you get an emergency phone call in the night? Will no-one think of the children?
Equally, what if like 99.999% of the population, you also use your phone as your alarm clock? What are you supposed to do… pretend it’s 2004 and actually buy an actual alarm clock instead?
Actually, we might be considering making that investment after all - this week an 18-year-old girl in China who was electrocuted and killed after going to sleep with her phone charging under her pillow.
According to the China Times, the 18-year-old’s body was found by her sister who smelt burning and went to investigate. She was found next to her iPhone, its screen shattered. The girl’s body was covered in burns, and experts concluded that she died of electrocution. And earlier this week, we reported thata 13-year-old girl in Texas woke up to discover that her smartphone had caught fire as it slipped under her pillow as she slept.
So if you’re keeping count, that’s two terrifying smartphone stories in one week, and also a potentially vindicating moment for our mothers, who spent most of the noughties telling us that mobile phones were bad for our health. Maybe now, at last, we’ll start leaving our iPhones smouldering away elsewhere when we go to bed for the evening.
Follow Rebecca on Twitter @rebecca_hol
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.