How charging your smartphone could be making you fatter

According to some slightly dubious research, charging your smartphone beside your bed at night can actually make you plumper.

According to Scientists at the University of Granada in Spain, the light your phone gives off as it charges means your body doesn’t produce enough of the sleep hormone melatonin. As a consequence, your body can’t process food as efficiently, which means more of it will be stored as fat rather than converted to energy.

Conversely, if your room is pitch black throughout the night, you can process food at maximum capacity, so not only will you get a better night’s sleep, you’ll have a svelte figure too.

Dr Simon Kyle, a sleep researcher at the University of Granada’s School of Psychological Sciences said: “We are interested in how an alteration in the sleep-wake pattern may be involved in the onset of diabetes and obesity and if, when you improve the timing of sleep you can also have a positive effect on conditions like diabetes and obesity.

“A lot of people are interested in this at the moment given that as a 24-hour society sleep deprivation is increasing and we are exposing ourselves to artificial light at night.”

He referred to other research by Manchester University, which examines how diabetes patients getting enough sleep enjoy improved health and reduced obesity levels.

“There is a lot of research showing we are meant to be asleep at night when darkness falls and melatonin rises and when the sun rises the melatonin is blocked by the sun. This light-dark cycle is good for our bodies to predict changes in the environment,” Kyle said.

The scientist suggests you avoid the temptation of going to bed with your prized smartphone or tablet, instead leaving them in another room to charge overnight. You should also take a rest from staring at the screen before you go to bed.