Have you ever been in a situation where you know it’s way past your bedtime, but for some reason you’re still up watching that final season of that intense television series, or that action-packed movie? If your answer is yes, then congratulations! You just might be a binge-watcher.
With the mind-boggling availability of digital devices and the attack of the internet, human beings have become addicted to a screen-culture, so to speak. We’ve become so engrossed with our phones, our laptops, and our movies that we’ve often unwittingly sacrificed our health and well-being just to satiate this engrossment. In this article, we’ll be taking a quick look at the prevalent binge watching phenomenon and understanding the adverse effects that binge watching has on our sleep, and by extension, our overall quality of life.
AN INTRO: BINGE-WATCHING
For starters, let’s take a quick look at what exactly binge watching is. The term ‘binge’ tends to mean something done in excess or the act of doing something in excess. Binge-watching, would therefore, refer to the act of watching something in excess. That being said, binge watching most aptly refers to the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television program in very quick succession, often without breaks.
This ‘binge watching culture’ started by the increasing popularity of video streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, etcetera. These services ensure that viewers can watch television shows and movies on-demand, easing the binge watching culture.
This activity, although entertaining, poses serious risks to the human body, particularly in the area of sleep. For instance, A recent study sampled 423 young adults and asked them questions regarding their watching patterns (particularly before bedtime). Of this sample size, more than 80% of them identified as binge watchers, with a little over 20% stating that they binged watched multiple times a week. In addition, the participants who identified as binge watchers reported issues with fatigue and erratic/heavily delayed sleep patterns leading to a very poor quality of sleep. This study and many others, have linked the act of binge watching to poor sleep levels.
BINGE-WATCHING AND SLEEP.
As has been earlier established, the act of binge-watching can greatly affect the level of sleep you have on a regular basis. But what’s the concrete link between this act and your sleep?
Well, for starters, when you binge-watch just before bed, your level of cognitive arousal spikes. The intense suspense-filled/action-packed plot of the movie or television series you just binge-watched, leaves your brain in a heightened state of alertness. This translates into pre-sleep arousal and delays the rate at which you fall asleep, which then leads to a poor quality of sleep overall.
Furthermore, this act of binge-watching not only delays the timing of your sleep, but you also become susceptible to sleep insufficiencies over a prolonged period of time, and seeing as sleep is essentially the fuel your body needs to function properly, you may run into a ton of health complications (including heart disease, obesity, reduced memory and cognitive ability, hypertension, depression and increased stress levels).
That being said, it is critical to understand that although binge-watching can be fun, you should never compromise your quality of sleep. To remedy this, you can decide to work on a schedule, wherein you watch only one or two episodes and get to sleep as timely as possible. These little changes have the potential to add up to an immense amount of benefit in the long run by keeping the overall quality of your life in the most top-notch shape. So prioritize your sleep from now on, and let that series rest!!
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