A prospective cohort study was conducted in Switzerland to investigate whether sleep quality is affected by mobile phone use or by other radiofrequency electromagnetic field sources in the everyday environment. Furthermore, the consistency of the results should be checked in a nested sleep study with measured exposure and measured sleep behavior data.
Sleep disturbances were determined by means of four standardized questions (difficulty in falling asleep, fitful sleep, waking phases during night, and waking too early in the morning) from the Swiss Health Survey 2007 and daytime sleepiness by seven items of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale.
In the nested sleep study including 119 study participants, exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic field was measured in the bedroom and data on sleep behavior was collected by means of actigraphy (monitoring sleep-wake cycles) during two weeks.
Further results of the QUALIFEX study are published in Röösli et al. (2010), Mohler et al. (2010) and Frei et al. (2012) .
| Group | Description |
|---|---|
| Reference group 1 | total everyday life exposure: < median |
| Group 2 | total everyday life exposure: 50. - 90. percentile |
| Group 3 | total everyday life exposure: > 90. percentile |
| Reference group 4 | night-time exposure: < median |
| Group 5 | night-time exposure: 50. - 90. percentile |
| Group 6 | night-time exposure: > 90. percentile |
| Reference group 7 | residential exposure to fixed site transmitters: < median |
| Group 8 | residential exposure to fixed site transmitters: 50. - 90. percentile |
| Group 9 | residential exposure to fixed site transmitters: > 90. percentile |
| Reference group 10 | mobile phone use: < median |
| Group 11 | mobile phone use: 50. - 90. percentile |
| Group 12 | mobile phone use: > 90. percentile |
| Reference group 13 | mobile phone use based on operator data: < median |
| Group 14 | mobile phone use based on operator data: 50. - 90. percentile |
| Group 15 | mobile phone use based on operator data: > 90. percentile |
| Reference group 16 | cordless phone use: < median |
| Group 17 | cordless phone use: 50. - 90. percentile |
| Group 18 | cordless phone use: > 90. percentile |
| Type | Value |
|---|---|
| Eligible | 3,763 |
| Participants | 1,375 |
| Evaluable | 955 |
119 participants in the nested sleep study
No association between exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields in an everyday environment and self-reported sleep disturbances or excessive daytime sleepiness was found during an exposure period of one year. These results were confirmed in the nested sleep study with objectively recorded exposure and measured sleep behavior data.
The authors concluded that they found no evidence for adverse effects on sleep quality from radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposure in an everyday environment.
This website uses cookies to provide you the best browsing experience. By continuing to use this website you accept our use of cookies.
