Although professionals have raised concern over the exposure this may have on the brain, due to many people sleep with their hands near their head, one Tasmanian women experienced a more rare side-effect.

Two weeks ago, Bellingham resident Jane Cooper abruptly woke up about 1am after experiencing a "strange feeling" coming from her wrist.

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"I looked down at my hand and was shocked to see smoke pouring out of it, about six or eight inches high, so I ripped it off, raced into the kitchen, and threw it into the sink," she said.

"It had split down the side somehow and burnt me quite badly across the wrist."

She had no idea what happened or why it overheated, but suspected it may have something to do with the battery.

She was under the impression it was perfectly safe to wear to sleep.

"That's actually the reason I bought it," she said.

"I suspected that I was waking up at night quite often, so I wanted to monitor my sleep to see what exactly was going on."

Ms Cooper said she had bought the device online three years ago and couldn't remember the brand name of it, nor could it be recognised after the incident, as it was significantly melted.

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This comes after digital wellness company Provata Health voluntarily recalled about 30,000 fitness trackers in 2018 following 13 reports that the device was overheating while charging or being used.

In three of these reports, users suffered burns to their wrists.

Similar instances have occurred all over the world, with Intel having to recall their Peak watch in 2016 after it was revealed to cause discomfort, burning, or blistering.

At the time, reported cases involved only 0.2 per cent of the wearables.

Ms Cooper's advice to those who wear fitness trackers to bed, was simply not to.

"I'm just lucky that I'm not a deep sleeper, or that I wasn't wearing my electric blanket like I do in winter or else it could have been much, much worse," she said.

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