Starting the day with your phone at 100 per cent battery apparently isn’t a universally-shared experience. While many will charge their phones overnight and have their battery slowly go down over the course of the day, others do not.

They’ll wake up with whatever percentage is left since they last charged it and will plug it in when it needs some juice. Sydney resident Ellen admitted to doing this and told Yahoo Lifestyle she never charges her phone at night.

“I only charge it when it’s under 5 per cent,” she said. “I always carry a portable charger. So instead of charging it before bed.

“I would rather take the portable charger with me and charge it when it’s almost dead.”

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This approach to one’s phone battery was first discovered by this Yahoo Lifestyle editor after seeing it discussed on the Girls Gotta Eat podcast.

Ashley asked her co-host Rayna whether she charges her phone at night and she confirmed she does it “whenever the wind blows”.

“I’m not shaming,” Ashley replied.

“I find it crazy. I thought we all wanted to wake up and start our day at 100 per cent.”

“If I wake up and it didn’t charge for some reason and it’s at like 30 per cent or 40 per cent, I’m anxious, like I need to wake up with a full charge.”

Do you have a story? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com

People divided over whether to charge or not to charge

There were plenty of people in the comments section of the podcast video that backed Ashley up.

“I am with the overnight charging gang. I thought everyone did that,” wrote one person.

“Omg! Is it a millennial thing?! I literally can’t sleep unless my phone is plugged in,” added another.

“Wait people don’t charge their phones at night? Why wouldn’t you? You don’t need it when you are sleeping you need it during the day. I’m so confused,” said a third.

But there were also some in Rayna’s camp.

“Everywhere I need to go has a charger. My house has a charger in every room. I don’t need to charge my phone every night. I charge it when I need it. It’s not that hard,” said one phone user.

“I NEVER charge my phone overnight. Sometimes my son will come in and plug it in for me. I think the rush of living on the edge is what does it for me,” said another.

But why do some people like to live on the edge like this?

Rayna and Ellen both said they are worried about destroying their phone’s batteries by charging it for hours on end overnight.

“I just heard that your phone only has so many amounts of charge in it, so that every time you plug it in, that’s another that’s another go at the battery,” the Sydneysider told Yahoo Lifestyle.

What do Apple and Samsung say?

Interestingly, two of the biggest smartphone players have options available for your battery if you’re concerned about overcharging.

Apple’s Optimised Battery Charging option helps “reduce battery aging”, where the iPhone learns from your “daily charging routine so it can wait to finish charging past 80 per cent until you need to use it”.

You can chuck that on in the Settings section.

Samsung allows users to switch on a function that only charges your phone to 85 per cent.

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The manufacturer said that charging your phone to 100 per cent “too frequently” may “negatively impact” the lifespan of the battery.

In an article for The Conversation, Ritesh Chugh, associate professor from CQUniversity Australia, agreed with Ellen and Rayna that charging your phone overnight is “not only unnecessary, it also accelerates battery ageing”.

“Keeping iPhones at full charge for extended periods may compromise their battery health,” he wrote.

“Rather than a full top-up, it’s recommended to charge your battery up to 80 per cent and not allow it to dip under 20 per cent.”

Most modern phones will have technology to stop the charge flowing into itself once it hits 100 per cent, so there’s little risk of being overcharged.

However, there can be an issue called “trickle charging”, which is when the phone drops down to 99 per cent due to apps working in the background, and the device keeps oscillating from 99 per cent to 100 per cent over several hours.

“Trickle charging can wear a battery down over time,” Ritesh said.

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