Your phone should not be charged overnight

To prolong the battery life of an iPhone, what is the best way to charge it? After asking myself this question, I decided to experiment to find out the answer. 

Thousands of people do the same thing before going to sleep: they charge their iPhones overnight

With a 20W charger, an iPhone can go from zero to 50% charge in about 30 minutes, and from 50% charge to full charge in about two hours.

It makes no sense to keep an iPhone connected to a charger for eight hours a day when it can charge so rapidly. In other words, that's about a third of its life.

Now that Apple has built Optimized Battery Charging into iOS, the iPhone stops charging once the battery reaches 80%, and only charges for the final 20% before you wake up.

However, this still means that the iPhone is connected to power all night long.

Batteries are prone to be destroyed by heat. It's impossible to avoid the normal wear and tear a battery experiences during charging and discharging, but you can control heat. While connected to a charger, your iPhone gets warm -- hotter than when it isn't.

Even though that may only be a few degrees above room temperature, overnight use of your iPhone does not seem wise to me. If you are traveling, I would recommend using a car charger or carrying a power bank.

As far as the iPhone's battery and charger are concerned, this system works well and should take less stress on them over time. Furthermore, it makes me think about where to charge my devices, so I don't rely solely on my bedside charger.

I've found this charging regime to be reliable whether I'm at home, traveling, or working on the road.