Having trouble falling asleep is nothing new. It happens to everyone, and each person has a different way of dealing with it. Some people just toss and turn for hours waiting to fall asleep. Some like to try to eliminate all distractions by making it as dark and quiet as possible. Some give up on sleeping entirely, getting up to make better use of their time than lying around waiting for sleep to come to them.
Still others try a different tactic. Comedies like The Office or Parks and Recreation give some viewers an easy route to sleep.
They are lighthearted and easy to watch but, most importantly, easy to tune out too. Watching comedies like these before bed can relax a person and distract her from the trying events of the day before turning into bed. Further, watching them as she tries to fall asleep (especially episodes that have been watched before) can bore her and hasten sleep.
Or so it is thought. “Research shows that excessive screen time can disrupt the amount and quality of your sleep,” said Bridget Wingo, an administrator at the Auburn University Department of Human Development and Family Studies.
“One of the main drawbacks of watching late night TV is the bright light coming from your screen, computer, phone, etc,” she said. Light (or rather its absence) is an integral factor in getting good sleep. “The brain uses light cues to regulate when we sleep and wake up. If you are exposed to bright lights late at night, it can delay the [daily] release of melatonin (the hormone that makes you feel sleepy).”
Additionally, she said, “Another drawback of falling asleep with the TV on is that it can wake you up and disrupt your sleep throughout the night.”
While watching these shows may help to relieve some stress from the day, they will not help you sleep. Instead, Wingo suggests journaling, exercising early in the day, or some other relaxation technique. These will have similar effects to watching TV without the drawback of making it harder to sleep.
If it is background noise that is needed to help one sleep, Wingo said a fan or sound machine is perfect for providing that white noise that helps faze out other sounds and distractions.
In the case that watching TV before bed is something one just cannot give up, there are ways to lessen its negative impact upon sleep. “Many computers and phones have settings that you can use to filter out the blue light [that disrupts melatonin release],” said Wingo. Programs such as f.lux or SunsetScreen can dampen the blue light from screens.
It may be hard to give up watching an episode of a show that we love before we go to sleep, but we will all sleep better for it.
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