Unexpected effects of charging your phone overnight
Our bodies need to relax and recharge at night to prepare for the hard work ahead. Can we do the same with our mobile phones, i.e., leave them charging overnight? The answer from experts is no.
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If you plug in your smartphone overnight, while you sleep and dream about the 2018 flagship phones, the battery in the phone will charge for about 2 hours to restore 100% capacity. The rest of the night, the pre-installed software in the phone will stop the charging process when the battery is 100% full.
This feature is meant to prevent damage to the battery from overcharging, but it doesn’t stop the battery from generating heat. If you keep your phone under your pillow, in a block, or even in a case at night while charging, you can limit the battery’s ability to fully charge. For example, if your battery is exposed to 40˚C temperatures for a year, you’ll only recover 65% of its capacity when you fully charge it. Even more surprisingly, if the battery is exposed to 60˚C temperatures for just 3 months, it will lose 40% of its capacity.
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| Statistics show that the more fully charged a smartphone battery is at a higher temperature, the faster its performance will degrade. Photo: Phonearena |
Statistics show that your smartphone battery will maintain its best performance if you let it charge to around 40% - 80% capacity. That means a quick recharge in the middle of the afternoon is enough to keep your phone battery in check. Charging overnight won’t allow you to control this process, unless you wake up every 3 hours to go to the bathroom.
So, it’s best to avoid charging your smartphone overnight, unless absolutely necessary. And if you do have to leave your phone charging overnight, make sure you don’t cover it with anything, including a protective case, to avoid unnecessary and harmful heating of the battery.
