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Should You Turn Off Your Smartwatch at Night? 5 Scenarios

Should I Turn Off My Smartwatch At Night

What makes smartwatches so convenient is that you can always carry them with you.

They’re designed to always be in use.

However, many users wonder if it’s a good idea to turn off their smartwatch before going to bed. 

It’s not necessary to turn off your smartwatch at night. It uses very little battery when not in use, so you’ll have plenty of charge in the morning. Leaving it on doesn’t have any health risks either. To guarantee a full battery, you can charge it through the night without harming the battery. 

In most situations, it doesn’t matter if you leave your smartwatch on or off.

In this article, I’ll discuss some specific scenarios when it’s better to do one of the two. 

Check out: Why Are Smart Watches So Expensive? 7 Important Factors


5 Scenarios for Turning Off a Smartwatch


You’ve likely heard several misconceptions about turning off smartwatches. The most common are concerning its battery or your personal health. 

However, there’s also genuine advice hiding in some of these concerns. So, what should you really believe? 

Let’s go over some of the scenarios where you might want to turn off your smartwatch.

We’ll see if there’s any truth to the reasoning behind them and whether or not you need to be concerned about anything. 

1. Turning Off Your Smartwatch To Extend Battery Lifespan

Many people believe that turning off your smartwatch occasionally is good for its battery. The truth is that it’s unnecessary

Old batteries had trouble giving readings of their charge level. For that reason, it was necessary to fully discharge them to get an accurate number. 

Smartwatches, as well as smartphones and laptops, use lithium-ion batteries.

These batteries are much better at keeping track of their charge levels, so it’s no longer necessary to discharge them or turn them off. 

In fact, it’s recommended not to let your battery discharge to 0%. Instead, it’s better to charge the battery often between uses. 

Regardless of when you last charged it, your smartwatch should always give you an accurate reading of its charge level.

This works as long as the battery is healthy. 

However, if the battery is more than a couple of years old, then it’s normal for it to give off readings.

The only permanent solution is replacing the battery. But there’s an easy temporal fix. 

Here’s how you can recalibrate your battery so that it starts giving you normal readings again: 

  1. Use your smartwatch until you completely drain its battery and it turns off. 
  2. Charge it until it gets to 100%. 
  3. Wait 10 more minutes. 
  4. Now you can plug it off. The battery will be calibrated. 

2. Saving Battery for the Next Day

A common assumption is that batteries slowly drain themselves when they’re not in use.

However, modern batteries consume almost no power when not in use, similar to as if turned off. 

Still, you might be thinking that smartwatches aren’t completely idle during the night.

They’re connected to Bluetooth and WiFi, and they might receive notifications. And you would be right. 

In practice, smartwatch batteries do receive some light use during the night. However, the percentage of the charge drained is still very small. 

If you want your battery to be at 100% when you wake up no matter what, you can always leave it charging. 

But if you don’t want to do that, you can turn off Bluetooth and WiFi in your smartwatch. Now the battery use will be barely noticeable. 

Of course, turning off your smartwatch’s connectivity means that you won’t be able to receive any notifications or calls through it. Keep that in mind. 

3. Charging Your Smartwatch Through the Night

Charging Smartwatch Overnight

There’s a myth that says charging a device more than 100% can damage its battery.

For this reason, many users don’t leave their smartwatches charging at night. 

But actually, charging a battery over 100% doesn’t do any damage to it. 

Modern devices use lithium-ion batteries. These batteries let your devices detect the charge level at any time.

When it reaches 100%, the power supply is turned off. 

So, if you leave your smartwatch connected through the night, it’ll stop charging once it hits 100%. 

Your smartwatch won’t take in constant “mini charges,” either. It has chips inside it to regulate how much charge can come in. 

There’s a way that charging your smartwatch for a very long time could be risky. But it’s not related to charging a battery beyond 100%. 

Lithium-ion batteries heat up when they receive high charges for a long time. This heat can damage them in the long run. 

For this reason, you should be wary of using non-official chargers. Some off-brand chargers can send too much current to your smartwatch battery and cause degradation. 

If you’re using an official charger and the manufacturer added proper safety limits to your device, then you shouldn’t have to worry. 

Reading recommendation: Are Smartwatches Actually Better Than Normal Watches?

4. Turning Off Your Smartwatch To Avoid Radiation

Smartwatches are designed to be worn all day, every day. They also spend more time close to your body than other devices. 

Some users worry that keeping a smartwatch on you all the time can expose you to harmful radiation. They may try to limit that exposure by turning it off at night. 

The truth is that smartwatches don’t emit harmful radiation

Let’s take it back for a moment. Electronic devices like smartphones, laptops, and smartwatches do emit electromagnetic radiation (ERM).

But they only do it in low frequencies. Radio antennas and microwaves do this too. 

ERM is only harmful in high frequencies. High ERM frequencies can damage our tissue and cause long-term illnesses. 

Meanwhile, low-frequency ERM doesn’t have enough energy to harm our cells.

It can cause heat, but this is only a problem in cases of heavy exposure in certain workspaces. 

Smartwatches and other electronic devices are regulated to stay only within the safe spectrum of ERM. 

All this means that it’s perfectly safe to wear smartwatches. There’s only one occasion where you must be careful: if you have a pacemaker. 

Smartwatches and other devices can create magnetic interference in pacemakers.

If you have one, make sure to always keep your smartwatch at least 6 inches (15 centimeters) away from where it’s placed. 

5. Wearing Your Smartwatch in Bed

You don’t have to worry about your smartwatch making it harder for you to fall asleep. In fact, it can be the opposite. 

Smartwatches can be a great tool if you have difficulty falling asleep or going to bed at a consistent time.

They can track how much you sleep and at what times with great accuracy

If you want to track your sleep but your smartwatch feels uncomfortable on your wrist, you can try adjusting its grip.

Many fitness and sleep trackers are designed to be light and thin to avoid this issue. 

Some smartwatch screens can be very bright. If its light wakes you up, make sure to lower its brightness or turn down the setting that makes it light up when you move your arm. 

Final Thoughts

Many users always carry their smartwatch with them, even when they go to bed.

Luckily, smartwatches are safe to wear through the night. There’s no issue with having them near and powered. 

Battery-life isn’t a problem either. Modern batteries will consume very little charge during the night. Turning it off won’t make much difference. 

If you want to guarantee a 100% charge, you can always leave it plugged in during the night.

It won’t damage the battery as long as you use an official charger. 

You may also wonder: Are cheap smartwatches worth it?