Featured Image Credit: Getty stock
Topics: iPhone, Apple, Technology
Joe Yates
Apple has issued a serious warning to iPhone users who make a habit of charging their device overnight - and if you’re guilty of plugging it in next to your bed before drifting off, you’re definitely not alone.
I'm guilty of doing it - I stick my phone on charge beside my bed before going to sleep so that my phone battery lasts all day, and because I don’t want to risk missing my alarm.
Although, before you panic, the tech giant isn’t saying you need to stop charging your iPhone overnight altogether. Instead, it’s urging users to be more careful about where and how they charge their devices while they sleep, especially when it comes to heat.
In particular, Apple warns against charging your phone in places where it can’t properly ventilate, which means no more dozing off mid-Netflix binge and waking up to find your iPhone tangled in its cable under the duvet or buried beneath pillows and blankets.
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The warning appears in Apple’s ‘Important safety information for iPhone’ memo, where it explains that charging a covered or poorly ventilated device could lead to discomfort or even injury.
The guidance tells users to 'avoid prolonged skin contact with the charging cable and connector when the charging cable is connected to a power source because it may cause discomfort or injury'.
It also states clearly: "Sleeping or sitting on the charging cable or connector should be avoided."
Apple goes on to stress: "Use common sense to avoid situations where your skin is in contact with a device, its power adapter, or a wireless charger when it’s operating or connected to a power source for long periods of time.
"For example, don’t sleep on a device, power adapter, or wireless charger, or place them under a blanket, pillow, or your body, when it’s connected to a power source."
The company adds that devices should always be kept in a well-ventilated area and notes: "Take special care if you have a physical condition that affects your ability to detect heat against the body.”
If all that sounds a bit dramatic, fire services say the risk is actually very real.
A firefighter from Kent Fire Rescue, over in the UK, previously took to TikTok to explain why charging phones overnight can be dangerous.
They said: "We get a lot of questions here at Kent Fire Rescue about why you shouldn't charge phones overnight. So here are the reasons why.
"Number one: you can't smell anything when you're asleep, so if it starts to burn, the fire won't wake you up.
"Number two: it only takes three breaths, right, to knock you unconscious."
Before adding: "Number three: lots of people have cheap or faulty phone chargers, or even genuine ones have been known start fires.”