Should I Leave My Phone Charging at Night?

It’s frustrating to leave home with a fully charged smartphone battery, and then discover it’s running low before lunchtime. While it’s true that lithium-ion batteries don’t hold a charge as well as they age, we have some tips to make sure you get the most life out of your devices as possible.

Don’t go too low

Some people are committed to letting their phones hit 0% battery power before giving it some juice. However, that’s not necessary or great for battery health. Phone batteries degrade fastest when regularly charged past 80% and when the charge drops below 20%. 

Huawei says “keeping your battery level as close to the middle (30% to 70%) as possible can effectively prolong the battery life.” With iPhone batteries, try to plug the device in before you hit Lower Power Mode. It can also be helpful to check if any apps running in the background are draining your battery. 

Keep it cool (but not too cool)

Extreme temperature changes are hard on phone batteries. Heat impacts a battery’s performance, and a device that’s too warm could be dangerous in extreme cases. When charging your phone, make sure there’s enough airflow around it (don’t leave it under a pillow!) and take the case off. 

Cold also impacts a lithium-ion battery. If you continuously leave your phone in your vehicle on a cold winter day, you’ll likely start to see an impact on the battery life. 

Try to avoid charging overnight

Nighttime is often the most convenient time to charge devices, but you may want to reconsider that approach. A phone battery will automatically stop charging when it hits 100% battery life, but then will begin trickle charging to keep it at 100%, compensating for the small charge your phone loses by nature of being on. This constant cycle (which, if you’re asleep, could be happening for several hours) eats away at the battery life span. 

Take advantage of device settings

There are settings on your phones and tablets that can help with battery life, if you have a consistent daily charging routine. On Apple devices with iOs 13 and later, users can turn on the Optimized Battery Charging setting, which will learn your behaviours and charge your phone at a rate that makes sense for how long you’re typically inactive. When that setting is enabled (and usually is by default, but it’s worth checking), the device will delay charging past 80% in certain situations. There are similar charging optimization settings on Android phones as well, along with apps like AccuBattery. 

Supercharge your internet experience

Now that your smartphone is charged, is it hooked up to your Wi-Fi? Reach out to our neighbourly support team and we can help you get set up.