Charging your mobile phone overnight: A good idea?
Almost every smartphone user does it: plugging their mobile phone into the charger in the evening before going to bed and leaving it to charge overnight. But just because everyone does it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. Charging at night can damage the sensitive technology of the battery cells. And some people even wonder whether it is dangerous to leave their mobile phones charging overnight.
Charging your mobile phone overnight – the most important points:
- Charging mobile phones at night no longer poses a safety risk
- However, it is advisable to activate smartphone protection settings on your mobile phone to conserve battery power
- Regularly check all connections, the power supply units and the charging cable. If the charging cable or power adapter is damaged, replace the corresponding part.
- If the mobile phone is switched off overnight, it charges more gently.
Charging your mobile phone overnight – is it dangerous?
The good news first: it is not dangerous to charge your mobile phone overnight. Modern smartphones have adequate protection mechanisms. Overcharging protection prevents the battery from overheating. It is therefore extremely unlikely that a mobile phone will start to burn just because it is connected to the power supply overnight. What can happen when charging overnight, however, is that the battery ages more quickly.
Modern mobile phone batteries work best between 20 and 80 % charge capacity
Lithium-ion batteries are installed in smartphones. Their optimum functional range is between 20 and 80 % charge. However, if the smartphone is left on the charger all night, it will be charged to 100 %. This can shorten the life of the battery.
In the past, nickel-cadmium batteries had a memory effect. This occurred when the battery was fully discharged and contributed to a shorter service life. This effect no longer exists with modern lithium-ion batteries. However, even modern batteries react sensitively if they are charged ‘incorrectly’.
How do you charge a mobile phone properly overnight?
To ensure that your smartphone battery lasts as long as possible, experts still recommend never fully discharging the battery. You should also disconnect your mobile phone from the charger as soon as the battery has reached its full capacity. Let’s assume that your mobile phone still has around 45% battery capacity in the evening. Then the experts recommend not charging the battery overnight, but rather the next day in the office. There, you should disconnect the mobile phone from the power cable as soon as the device is 100% charged.
While the mobile phone is charging, you can use it. Writing a text message or checking emails is no problem. What you should not do with your mobile phone, however, are very power-intensive activities. You should avoid video chatting with your best friend or streaming your favourite series while charging. Otherwise, the device can get uncomfortably hot and, in the worst case, switch off to prevent overheating.
To ensure that your mobile phone charges as gently as possible, it is advisable to switch it off when charging at night. This way the device charges evenly. It also has the advantage that you close all programmes when you switch off. Apps are shut down and unnecessary files are closed. This helps the device to work more smoothly the next day. You can read more tips on this topic in our article on saving battery power.
Protective measures taken by manufacturers to protect the battery
The various manufacturers have set up special settings for smartphones to protect the battery.
- On a Samsung mobile phone, you can find this as follows: Settings => Device maintenance => Battery under ‘Protect battery’
- iPhone calls the function ‘Optimised charging’
- With Huawei, you can find the setting under Settings => Battery => Other settings and ‘Smart Charge’
- With Sony, you will find the ‘Battery care’ item in the battery settings.
Conclusion: Can you charge your mobile phone overnight?
Yes, you can charge your mobile phone overnight. It is not dangerous. However, it is also not 100% recommended. After all, the optimum battery capacity for lithium-ion batteries is between 20 and 80 %. However, manufacturers are becoming more and more resourceful in this area and some are incorporating charging protection that automatically stops charging at 80 % battery capacity.
