Fireman explains why you shouldn't charge your phone while you're asleep

At this point, putting your phone onto charge at night is almost as second nature as brushing your teeth.

Yes, there are some people out there who adhere to the 'no screen time for two hours before going to sleep', but the majority of us are still checking Twitter or Instagram up until the minute we close our eyes.

We then plug it into the socket by our bed and wake up the next day to do it all over again.

However, a fireman has urged people to break the habit immediately, as he says it could be the difference between life and death.

In a post to TikTok, a fire fighter from Kent Fire Rescue said: "We get a lot of questions here at Kent Fire Rescue about why you shouldn't charge phones overnight. So here are the reasons why.

"Number one: you can't smell anything when you're asleep, so if it starts to burn, the fire won't wake you up.

"Number two: it only takes three breaths, right, to knock you unconscious.

@kentfirerescue/TikTok

"Number three: lots of people have cheap or faulty phone chargers, or even genuine ones have been known start fires.

"If you're able to, we advise you to charge your phone when you're there and awake from a fire service point of view. It's much safer."

While there were plenty of people in the comments who understood where the officer was coming from, you know, with him being an expert on the matter, not everyone took it that seriously.

Some even commented that they'd never had any problems with their charger, and they use it every night.

Replying to one of the comments, Kent's account said: "We’d advise you didn’t, but we can’t enforce anything. All we can do is share advice based on real incidents. We always hope you’ll never need us."

Andrzej Rostek/Alamy

If you're still on the fence, though, you may want to have a look at the official advice being offered by London Fire Brigade.

On their site, the LFB says it's vital people take care when using electrical equipment.

It says: "Lithium-ion batteries or li-ion batteries (sometimes called LIBs) are the lightweight, rechargeable batteries that power our phones, laptops and cameras. They're found in many electrical devices from mobility scooters to e-cigarettes, and are used safely by millions of people every day.

"Batteries can present a fire risk when over-charged, short-circuited, submerged in water or if they are damaged. It's really important to charge them safely too."

It goes on to warn people about the importance of never going to sleep while a device is on charge, always buying branded chargers and batteries, and not storing them at high temperatures or covering them up.

So you've been warned.