Here, electricity expert Steven Magee tests a spring coil mattress for its ability to function as a radio antenna.

Did you know that any metal can act as a radio antenna? This being the case, the large amount of metal in a spring coil mattress has the potential to act as a surprisingly effective radio antenna. Sleeping on all this electromagnetic radiation is simply not good for your health or your sleep . Let's have a look at this real-life test by Steven Magee. You'll be surprised at just how well a metal coil mattress can work as an antenna!

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment is to test out how well a spring coil mattress can function as a radio antenna. To do this, Steven Magee uses an ordinary radio with its antenna replaced with a clip. He then connects this clip to the metal coils of a spring coil mattress. In other words, the spring coil mattress is 'invited' to become the antenna to this radio.

At this point we look, listen and see if the radio picks up any stations using the spring coil mattress as an antenna.

Outcome

How many radio stations can this mattress pick up? A lot, as it turns out! Steven Magee has set the radio to AM and to auto-scan (i.e. to scan through all the different AM frequencies). You'll see in this video that when scanning through the stations, the radio stops many times when it detects radio stations. So this is proof that not just one station but many are picked up by the spring coil mattress.

What this means is that the metal in a spring coil mattress acts very effectively to amplify electromagnetic radiation. Your mattress can pick up many radio stations!

What this means for viewers

Do you want to be sleeping on top of all this electromagnetic radiation? No! You would be basically sleeping on an antenna system - no-one wants to do that. Electromagnetic radiation has been shown in certain situations to lead to poor health and even increases the risk of certain cancers. How much this will actually affect your health will depend in part on the amount of padding in the mattress. But the good news is that you can stay safe and completely avoid this antenna effect if you sleep on a mattress that does not contain metal.