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A new study released by the National Institutes of Health reports that women who fall asleep in front of the television every night are more likely to gain up to 11 pounds over a five year period versus those who slept in total darkness.
That data looks at over 43,000 US women who range in age between 35 to 14. These are not shift workers, were not pregnant at the start of the study and they do not have any history of cardiovascular disease or cancer. A baseline was taken for each woman, and researchers noted their weight and BMI at the start. Five years later, this information was recorded again, along with supplying them a questionnaire, asking how they slept every night: in total darkness, with a nightlight, a light shining from outside their bedroom, a full light in the room or with the television on.
The results were that women who slept with a light or the television on were 17% more likely to have gained 11 pounds or more over the five-year study, versus those who slept in darkness. These women also had a staggeringly high 22% chance of becoming overweight and a 33% chance of becoming obese. The women who slept with a nightlight, or in darkness, did not put on weight.
Scientists who conducted the research state that television before bed causes a shift within your brain, making it harder for you to go to sleep and stay asleep. Light in the room works the same way, preventing the correct cycles from being entered to experience a full, deep nights sleep. Sleep deprivation can cause you to mentally ‘slow down’, increases your risk of accidents, increases your risk of death, and – as this study continues to show – increase the amount of weight you can gain.
Sleeping in as dark of a room as you can handle it is the first step to combatting this! It might be hard for those who are habitual TV-sleepers to adjust to a quiet room, but a white noise machine can be a great asset for them. If you have an Alexa or Google Home, they can play a variety of background noises on loop, including the sound of rain, fans moving through the air, and more.
You don’t have to sleep in complete darkness. A small nightlight in a central location can be enough for your eyes to see around the room without disrupting your sleep schedule. If you struggle with the idea of not being able to see when you wake, consider a sleep mask instead. The light won’t be behind your eyes, but you only have to remove it to see your surroundings.
If you can’t stop watching television before bed, consider blue-blocking glasses to wear until you turn it off. The harsh light from TV and other electronic devices is often what causes our brains to shift away from sleep mode, and these glasses (Which can be found on sites like Amazon) help reduce that light.
Ultimately, better sleep means a better quality of life for you. There are no downsides to getting more sleep, and the upsides are looking better and better!
