The $15 Fix to Reduce WiFi Exposure by Half

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EMFs are a controversial topic these days! Many types of technology are new and we don’t yet fully understand how they impact the body. In a technological world, avoiding all EMFs is nearly impossible, but there are simple steps we can take to reduce WiFi and EMF exposure, including a simple and inexpensive tip that reduces exposure by half!

Why Should You Reduce EMF & WiFi Exposure?

The short answer is because we don’t know what we don’t know. The research is divided and we truly don’t know if or how much different types of EMFs affect the body.

EMF stands for Electromagnetic Field and we’re surrounded by them almost everywhere we go. From cell phone signal to WiFi to radio frequencies they are everywhere. Many experts claim that there are negative consequences to certain types of EMF exposure but they are relatively new and more research is needed.

The Body Electric

We do know that our bodies also have electric and magnetic fields. Some of these are easily measurable and used in medical care. An EKG (electrocardiogram), for instance,  measures the heart’s electrical activity to detect problems.

Our nervous system and even individual cells are specialized to conduct electricity in certain ways. At even our basic level, we’re made up of atoms consisting of protons, neutrons and electrons:

Protons have a positive charge, neutrons have a neutral charge, and electrons have a negative charge. When these charges are out of balance, an atom becomes either positively or negatively charged. The switch between one type of charge and the other allows electrons to flow from one atom to another. This flow of electrons, or a negative charge, is what we call electricity. Since our bodies are huge masses of atoms, we can generate electricity.

If you want to understand this more fully, I highly recommend the book The Body Electric.

EMF Exposure Matters

Since the body is electric, even on its most basic level, it makes sense that exposure to electrical fields would have some type of effect on the body. Like I said, we’re still learning just how much, but it is something to be aware of.

At the same time, we are exposed to many millions of times as many EMFs as our grandparents were. That’s a tremendous change in a very short period of time and worth paying attention to.

My personal opinion is that until we know more, we should proceed with caution and try to educate ourselves as new research emerges. A few small changes will also reduce exposure at little or no cost and have no downside.

 How to Reduce WiFi Exposure by Half

Multiple experts have explained on the Wellness Mama Podcast that the most dangerous time for EMF exposure is while we are sleeping. The body is naturally in a state of repair during this time and certain defenses are down so cells can be more sensitive.

Plus, unless you’ve figured out a way to multi-task that I haven’t, none of us are using the internet while we are sleeping anyway. Turning off WiFi during sleeping hours car reduce daily exposure by as much as half. There’s also no downside!

The best part?

With a $15 device and five minutes of set-up time, you can “set and forget” this process. You won’t even have to remember to turn the router on and off at night!

Here’s how:

Step 1: Get an Electrical Timer & Surge Protector

Ever used an electrical timer for Christmas lights or to turn lights on and off when you’re out of town? The same type of concept can make it simple to reduce wifi exposure at night. You need two things:

  1. A high-quality three prong electrical timer like this one. This specific timer also has a bypass switch so if you’re staying up later one night to stream a movie or to work, you can temporarily bypass the automatic turn-off time. More on that below, but any three-prong timer will work.
  2. If you have more than one thing to plug in to the timer, you’ll also need a high quality surge protector. We like this one because it rotates and lets you plug in all shapes of plugs and adaptors from modems and routers.

Step 2: Connect Everything

To make the timer most effective, everything related to your internet needs to run through it. In our house, this means multiple routers (since we have to run two networks for podcasting), a printer, and a couple of other things.

We plugged all of these devices into the surge protector. Then, we plugged the surge protector into the timer and the the timer into the wall.

Step 3: Set Your Sleep Hours

The final step is to figure out the hours you won’t need your WiFi. Once you do, set the timer to automatically turn off during these hours by pushing down those hours in 30-minute increments.

Since we try to stop working and go to bed by ten, we set our timer to turn off power at this time. Then, since we try not to be on the computer first thing, we don’t have it go on until 8 am. This simple step reduced 10 hours of WiFi exposure for all of us. On nights we need to be on the internet later for a project or a movie, we just flip the bypass switch and and switch it back as soon as we’re ready to go to bed.

Combined with the 6+ hours our kids spend outdoors and away from homes and wifi, this means that they are not exposed to strong wifi signals for two thirds of their day. For under $15 we can make a big difference in our exposure without even having to remember to do anything each day!

Other Ways to Reduce WiFi and EMF Exposure

Like I said, we need more research to know definitively how EMFs affect the body. In the meantime, we can take simple steps to reduce wifi and other exposure. If you want to be more proactive, there are some additional steps like:

  • Switch to Wired Internet: If you want to avoid WiFi in your home completely, it is also possible to hardwire internet using ethernet cables. This is admittedly a bigger time and money commitment but many people who are sensitive to EMFs take this extra step.
  • Try an EMF Sleep Switch: Even wiring in our walls can put off some low level electromagnetic radiation. While these are hopefully not a big deal for most of us, they can bother those who are EMF sensitive or who are trying to recover from a more serious health issue. In these cases, there is an easy-to-install box called EMF Kill Switch that takes down non-necessary EMFs at the breaker level at night. I’ve talked to several people who noticed a big change from this alone. This podcast episode delves into the science more.
  • Phones out of Bedrooms: Another simple step is to simply not take phones and devices into bedrooms and keep them away from us while we sleep. Alternatively, we can put them in airplane mode (because again, we’re probably not talking on the phone while sleeping unless you’ve figured out how to multitask in an extreme way! We have a family charging station where phones and tablets charge at night (in airplane mode). This is in a room far away from bedrooms.
  • Use headphones or speaker phone: Instead of holding your phone up to your head, use speaker phone or headphones.

Learn More About EMFs

Want to learn more? Check out these podcasts, articles and books for more:

Podcast Episodes- Listen to Learn More:

Books and Articles to Learn More:

What do you think about EMFs? What steps do you take to reduce WiFi and EMF exposure?

Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

27 responses to “The $15 Fix to Reduce WiFi Exposure by Half”

  1. Tonya Avatar

    Any advice on satellite internet dish and attempting to diminish emf plus rf from wifi? The wifis in a basement room and the dish is approximately 6 ft away from my bedroom, just outside of our house. It’s about 2ft away from the house exterior wall. I definitely can feel a difference since installation. So can my children.

  2. Madison Avatar
    Madison

    Katie thank you for the great tips!! I am trying to reduce exposure in our home. Have you heard of the Qi machine? I’m wondering if you’ve tried it and are willing to say what you think.

  3. christine Avatar
    christine

    Hello, can you please provide any “vetted” items that can be used while we have our phones on us/next to us, during the course of the day, in order to block out the EMFs? (So many things being marketed for this, it’s hard to know what is actually effective.)

    Thank you.

  4. Cecelia Avatar

    Katie, thanks so much for covering this important issue in your blog — and thanks to my sister for sharing this post with me!

    In November, the U.S. National Toxicology Program’s $30M study confirmed “clear evidence” of heart tumors with additional findings for brain tumors and DNA damage from wireless radiation. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

    Other peer-reviewed, published studies that seldom make it into mainstream media here are linking wireless radiation to autism, Alzheimer’s, infertility, insomnia, heart irregularities, skin abnormalities, headaches, nausea, dizziness, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, cognitive impairment, anger and other behavior issues. Children, the science shows, are especially vulnerable.

    I have helped my public school district become the first in the nation to begin taking precautionary measures to protect our collective children and educators.

    I have also helped Massachusetts lead the nation with a number of bills this session to start addressing wireless radiation and public health. Folks are welcome to see the bills page in my research repository. There is an Executive Summary at the top that will help you come up to speed quickly on this issue, as well as an EMF Points of Confusion vs. Fact sheet to help dispel common misunderstandings: https://sites.google.com/site/understandingemfs/massachusetts-emf-bills-2019-20. Folks are welcome to peruse the rest of my repository as well.

    Thank you for your time and consideration.

  5. Cecelia Avatar

    That’s a tough one, as we all want to be available to others in an emergency. We weighed that against the risk of leaving ourselves exposed to toxic wireless radiation which may eventually cause us to have an emergency of our own. We decided to retain our landline, which does not emit wireless radiation. Folks know to contact us on the landline. You can also forward your cell phone calls to your landline. Hope that helps!

  6. Kara Avatar

    If you turn your router on and off each day by stopping electicity to you you can damage your router, maybe even kill it. They are not designed for that. I killed one this way. You have to log in and turn it off to save the life of your router.

    1. Wim Avatar

      I’ve been switching my router and PC on and off with a regular (light) switch for 5 years now; never had an issue. When I stop using the computer that one switch switches off the router, the PC, the monitor and a desk-lamp all at once.

  7. Bre Avatar

    Super interesting! Is there a reason an outdoor timer is necessary?
    I know that our electric company just installed a new meter that sends them the usage automatically. This is right under my bedroom outside. Now I need to see how to protect myself from that as well!

  8. Blanca Avatar

    Hi, does anyone knows if turning the router on and of will couse problems? We recently try to have wireless internet at home but when the technician came to install it we told him we will be turning it on and off he say it will get damaged. We decided not to have internet.

    1. kathleen kahl Avatar
      kathleen kahl

      I was told this too. I did blow one when I was turning it on and off every day. I got a new one and bough the timer. It’s been 2 months and its fine. I figure I rent it so if it breaks they will replace it. I just won’t mention the timer. 🙂
      I feel like I sleep better with if off at night.

  9. Rhiannon Lynn Avatar
    Rhiannon Lynn

    I use a SmartDot on my phone (which is ALWAYS on airplane mode) and on my laptop, and it makes a HUGE difference. Plus, I have a Space-Pyramid from the same company that uses sacred geometry to harmonise the whole house. And I put a piece of black tourmaline crystal between me and my keyboard, and another on my laptop.
    Aluminium is VERY CONDUCTIVE, you lot who use it! Lead foil would be more effective, technically speaking, as would gridding your place with black tourmaline, amazonite, selenite and obsidian pieces, arranged in a a suitable pattern (use your intuition).
    This is what works for me, especially as our WIFI doesn’t go off until 10 or even 11pm. Hoping for ethernet in the next place, and/or a wifi that is optional and can be switched off, leaving the ethernet on!

  10. Michelle Avatar

    I love this idea but we have a wireless alarm system which we want to keep on at night. I haven’t seen any good options for wired alarm systems. Any ideas to deal with securing your home at night without WiFi?

    1. Katie Wells Avatar

      Some of those systems can run off of a hardwired phone line instead on wifi. You might ask your provider if that is an option?

  11. Amy Franks Avatar
    Amy Franks

    For the readers concerned about wifi provided by a landlord, I recommend getting a mosquito net and hot glue aluminum foil onto it, it helps you block out the signals at night!

    For the folks concerned about emergencies, I’ve learned no one can help you in the minute it takes to get your phone turned on. I keep a gun next to my bed for personal security and for medical issues, I keep a phone in a foil bag and remove it if it’s that important.

    1. Rani Avatar

      I’m thinking about if someone else needs to contact me, not the opposite. We don’t have a landline 🙂

  12. Julie Avatar

    Is it safe to plug a power strip surge protector into a timer? That’s what’s stopped us from doing this. The picture you show isn’t the same as what your describing, correct? Thanks for the article!

    1. Katie Wells Avatar

      We have our power strip plugged into the timer. The picture of the strip isn’t the same as the one I link to because that one is all plugged in and a pain to remove all the chords from, so I had to stage this one 🙂

  13. Ashley Avatar

    I’m curious about what you don in the event of an emergency? If your phones are away from the bedroom and there is a break in how do you contact someone to come help you? Or what if a loved one ends up in the hospital in the middle of the night?
    My husband and I have had this discussion many times but we both come back to needing to have something in the bedroom for an emergency.

  14. Nicole Chantrelle Avatar
    Nicole Chantrelle

    What to do if you live in an English basement apartment and wireless service is an included amenity?

  15. Amy Franks Avatar
    Amy Franks

    My goodness! Also, I would recommend turning off circuits at the circuit breaker to the house that aren’t being used, the flow of electricity generates radiation!

    And if you have gas lines, to turn those off whenever possible because they leak off chemicals like hydrocarbons.

    1. Carrie L Fellows Avatar
      Carrie L Fellows

      These articles imply there is not much research on EMF. WOW
      Perhaps you would watch Dr. Sharon Goldberg and Senate on 5G.

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