September 22, 2015
Science Explains Why You Should NEVER Fall Asleep With Your TV On
Sometimes, the television can provide the white noise you need to zone out. It is background noise, it is a voice when we're alone or lonely. Maybe you're doing housework or cooking and the TV gives you just enough distraction that your mind doesn't get itself tied up into too many knots.
For some, it provides the soothing comfort needed to fall asleep. Harmless habit, right? Maybe not.
Diana Pilkington, for Daily Mail, says that sleeping in front of the television can lead to depression.
Dr. Guy Meadows of The Sleep School, a clinic in West London, explains that the light emitted from TVs is not safe for sleep.
“We’re designed to sleep in the dark,” Dr. Meadows says. “When the sun comes up, the light receptors in the retina at the back of the eye tell us it’s time to wake up by inhibiting the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy.”
Having the television on while you sleep may be preventing you from hitting deep sleep which can lead to poor mood the following day.
“Tiredness dampens down the effect of the pre-frontal cortex in the brain, which is responsible for more rational thought and causes us to use the part of the brain responsible for emotion called the amygdala,” Pilkington reports. Your sleep cycle and your mood are very closely related.
There also appears to be a link between light and depression as examined in a study by Tracy Bedrosian, a doctoral student studying neuroscience at Ohio State University.
Bedrosian divided 16 hamsters into groups of two and exposed them to bright light for 16 hours a day. For the next eight hours, half the hamsters were exposed to complete darkness while the other half were exposed to dim light, like that from a television.
After 8 weeks, the hamsters that were exposed to the dim light scored much lower in mood tests than those that weren't. “The darkness-deprived hamsters drank 20 percent less sugar water than the other group, for example, suggesting they weren’t getting the same enjoyment out of activities they used to find pleasurable,” writes Emily Sohn for Discovery News. This group also gave up more quickly in a swimming test.
When looking at the brains in both hamster groups, the most noticeable differences occurred around the hippocampus. The decreased activity in this section of the brain is also noted in people who suffer with clinical depression.
So, it seems that if you are prone to falling asleep in front of the television or require it to fall asleep, it might be best to try to change your habits!
Do you sleep with the television on? Is this study enough to make you reconsider?
Source: Elite Daily
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Having the television on while you sleep may be preventing you from hitting deep sleep which can lead to poor mood the following day.
“Tiredness dampens down the effect of the pre-frontal cortex in the brain, which is responsible for more rational thought and causes us to use the part of the brain responsible for emotion called the amygdala,” Pilkington reports. Your sleep cycle and your mood are very closely related.
There also appears to be a link between light and depression as examined in a study by Tracy Bedrosian, a doctoral student studying neuroscience at Ohio State University.
Bedrosian divided 16 hamsters into groups of two and exposed them to bright light for 16 hours a day. For the next eight hours, half the hamsters were exposed to complete darkness while the other half were exposed to dim light, like that from a television.
After 8 weeks, the hamsters that were exposed to the dim light scored much lower in mood tests than those that weren't. “The darkness-deprived hamsters drank 20 percent less sugar water than the other group, for example, suggesting they weren’t getting the same enjoyment out of activities they used to find pleasurable,” writes Emily Sohn for Discovery News. This group also gave up more quickly in a swimming test.
When looking at the brains in both hamster groups, the most noticeable differences occurred around the hippocampus. The decreased activity in this section of the brain is also noted in people who suffer with clinical depression.
So, it seems that if you are prone to falling asleep in front of the television or require it to fall asleep, it might be best to try to change your habits!
Do you sleep with the television on? Is this study enough to make you reconsider?
Source: Elite Daily
Do you follow us on Instagram?
[caption id="attachment_110004" align="alignnone" width="100"]
@BodyRockTV[/caption]