Could This Common Technology Be Messing With Your Sleep?

Technology moves so quickly that we're not always sure what its long-term effects are. Chances are, you have wireless internet at your home, but experts aren't sure whether its type of radiation is completely harmless. That's why clean-living guru Sophia Gushée, a Well+Good Council member and toxic-exposure expert, installed a WiFi kill switch in her home—and here, she explains why you might want to do the same.

I love my WiFi kill switch. If you don’t have one, you should get one, too. Why? You could sleep and feel better. And it can hack your exposures to cell phone-type radiation, which the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) recommends we minimize.

In December 2017, the CDPH issued guidelines to encourage the public to reduce their exposures to cell phone radiation. While the CDPH acknowledged that the science is still evolving, based on the current body of science, it recommends that we take measures to be safe rather than potentially sorry.

My secret weapon is what I call a WiFi kill switch.

WiFi routers, present in most homes, are another source of cell phone-type radiation, also known as “non-ionizing” radiation. The good news: This is easy to reduce. My secret weapon is what I call a WiFi “kill switch.”

In my home, we have more than one WiFi router. So I set our routers to automatically turn off at night and to turn on in the morning. Furthermore, with the flip of a switch, I can manually shut on and off all WiFi routers to minimize WiFi radiation during the day, too (an Ethernet cable connects my laptop to the Internet). For those with one router, you can manually turn it on and off, or you can connect your router to a timer to automate when your it goes off or on.

Voilà! Your sleep environment now poses less stress on your body, so you can enjoy more restorative rest. You won’t miss the disconnection while you’re in deeper sleep, and you’ll be more prepared for connection and productivity during the day. To learn more about safety tips when your WiFi router is turned on, then check out WiFi Routers: What’s a Safe Distance? (Though you may want to read it over an ethernet cable!)

Sophia Gushée is a sought-after toxic exposures expert, author of A to Z of D-Toxing, and founder of Practical Nontoxic Living, a multimedia company that produces podcasts and is incubating the D-Tox Academy, an online portal to make practical nontoxic living simple and accessible.

What should Sophia write about next? Send your questions and suggestions to experts@www.wellandgood.com.