Sleeping Near An Electrical Panel – Is It Dangerous?

If you read my huge post on EMF radiation in the bedroom you would have read that one solution to dramatically reducing EMF radiation while you sleep is to cut the power to your bedroom via the distribution board (or electrical panel) in your home. However, what happens if your bedroom, is right next to the room that contains your electrical panel? Electrical breakers give off an enormous amount of EMF radiation, just pick up a good EMF meter and find out for yourself. Given that they produce so much EMF radiation, sleeping near an electrical panel can be quite dangerous.

Let’s dive into why this is dangerous, and what you can do to protect yourselves.

I just want to quickly mention that if you’re at all concerned about EMF radiation, you should take a second and check out Nicolas Pineault’s The Non-Tinfoil Guide to EMFs. It is an entertaining and extremely informative ebook on EMF radiation that I absolutely love. 

Or, if you’re curious about the products that I use, trust, and recommend for EMF protection, take a look at my recommended products page.

Is It Dangerous To Sleep Near An Electrical Panel?

Hopefully, if you’ve read many other posts on EMF Academy, or anywhere else, you at least have a basic understanding that long-term exposure to EMF radiation is extremely harmful to the body. EMF Radiation has consistently been shown to create all sorts of symptoms, including:

• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Mood Swings
• Heart Arrhythmia
• Ashma
• Fertility Issues
• Digestive Issues
• Memory Problems
• Sleep Issues

Check out my full post on EMF exposure symptoms, for a lot more information on this. When we’re talking about sleeping near a huge source of EMF Radiation like an electrical panel though, we also need to think about how this radiation affects our ability to get good sleep.

A study conducted by the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Melbourne found that consistent exposure to EMF radiation dramatically hinders the body’s ability to produce melatonin, which is the hormone the body relies on to regulate states of sleep.

The reason this happens is that the pineal gland, where the body produces the melatonin, thinks that the EMF radiation is light, and so it produces less melatonin.

There are quite a few things you can do to make your bedroom a safer more restful place, so check out my post on EMF radiation in the bedroom for tons of tips on this.

For all these reasons and more, it is vitally important to create, to the best of your ability, a space that is low EMF, and conducive to restful, complete sleep. My wife and I have, and continued, to work hard at making our bedroom a sanctuary from the technologies around us.

Although we can’t be perfect, because both of our jobs require technology, we’ve done our very best to make our home and bedroom safe for ourselves and our family. So I put together the best tips I’ve found, and that we’ve used, to reduce or eliminate EMFs in the bedroom.

What To Do If You Sleep Near An Electrical Panel

Before I list out the best things to do, you really need to consider getting an EMF meter. I promise that this will be your best and favorite tool when it comes to reducing EMF radiation exposure.

You can determine what kind, and how much, radiation is being emitted from the devices in your home. In addition, you can actually determine if measures like the ones listed below are making a difference.

I personally have and love the new TriField TF2 (read my review) as it’s simple to use, lasts forever, is extremely accurate, and measures all three types of EMF radiation. 

Ok, now onto what you can do.

First of all, if you have a bedroom near a circuit panel, and you can’t just move the bedroom, the first thing you should do is move the bed as far away from the panel as possible. Remember that when it comes to EMF radiation, distance is really key.

The inverse-square law tells us that if you double your distance from any source of EMF radiation, like an electrical panel, that you’ll be exposed to a quarter of the radiation. So the farther you can get away from a huge source that you can’t get rid of, the better.

Put A Barrier Between You and the Electrical Panel

The next thing you should do is consider shielding any shared walls between the electrical panel and areas where you sleep or spend a lot of time. Probably the best way you can do this is with an EMF protection paint, I wrote a whole review on my favorite paint that you can check out. You’ll see in that article that this paint is extremely effective at blocking radiation, but there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:

1. Make sure that you measure the wall before you order any of the paint, and be sure to account for at least 2 coats. You can check out the Amazon listing for information on how much space a bucket or bottle covers.
2. You’ll need to ground the paint for it to be fully effective. You can ground it either to an electrical outlet, or to the earth, but I would consult the manufacturer’s instructions on how to do this correctly. They do also sell accessories to help with this.
3. Get an EMF meter so that you can measure how much radiation your electrical panel is giving off, and you’ll be able to tell how much is being reduced. Usually, you’ll get a reading, then paint a layer, get another reading, paint another layer, get another reading, ground the paint, get another reading, and so on until you can get it reduced to acceptable levels.
4. EMF Protection pains like Yshield will block radio frequencies, so depending on where your WiFI router is, you could have some connection issues.

Cheaper Option To Shield An Electrical Panel

If you read my post on Mylar’s ability to block EMF radiation, you’d know that a mylar emergency blanket (like this one from Amazon), that you can get for super cheap, does reduce EMF radiation.

So, you could get a material similar to this, depending on where your electrical panel is, and use it to shield the panel. In our home, the panel is in our laundry room, and we can shield it without it looking unattractive because it is in a room that isn’t seen that often.

What About Sleeping Near An Electrical Outlet?

An electrical outlet will not put off nearly the amount of EMF radiation that an electrical panel will, especially if nothing is plugged in and drawing power from it. However, the wiring in your home that goes from the panel to these outlets can emit a small amount of radiation, primarily through dirty electricity.

All sorts of devices like dimmer switches, computers, and even certain lightbulbs draw inconsistent power and switch the current from AC to DC, which interrupts the smooth sine waves and produces harmonics (physics definition, not musical one) of dirty electricity.

This dirty electricity, since it cannot be used by other electronics, radiates a good amount of measurable EMF radiation, and can be harmful in the long run. You can read my full post on the dangers of dirty electricity for more on this.

The video below shows you a reading of how much EMF radiation electrical outlets put off.

Final Thoughts

No matter what you decide to do, if you are sleeping near an electrical panel it is really important to take steps to reduce the radiation. Not only because you will spend one-third of your life in that space, and long-term EMF exposure is really harmful, but because you’ll get much better sleep.

Also, be sure to check out my recommended products page!

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