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Lockdown, social distancing, quarantine and self-isolating; all these ‘restrictions’ means we have been, and will continue to, spend a lot of time at home in the upcoming weeks. And, once you’ve completed all the ‘intelligent’ activities that you think you should be doing such as 1000-piece puzzles, board games and you’re half way through that 700 page book that’s been collecting dust, you’re going to want to do something relaxing, like watch TV.
Your anxiety is probably through the roof already, which ultimately wreaks havoc on your sleep but, you don’t want to stop watching your favourite series because vegging in front of the TV calms you. So, how can you do both? Jaco Joubert, SKYWORTH brand manager says there are certain changes we can make to how we’re watching TV to make sure it doesn’t affect our sleep:
Take a break – Sleep medicine societies recommend getting out of ‘the auto-play loop,’ where you just watch episode after episode because it takes less effort than stopping the playback. Netflix and other streaming services settings menus give you the option to turn auto-play off. The idea is that manually loading the next episode can prevent you from having your eyes glued to the screen mindlessly. However, it’s still easy for you to click, click, click through the episodes.
Set episode limits – Don’t start the first episode of a new series you’ve been dying to watch and then just see how the evening goes. Rather make the decision of how many episodes you’re going to watch before bed and then stick to that limit, regardless of how exciting it may be. If you’re having trouble sticking to this, you may need to trick yourself. One way to do this is by downloading episodes onto your phone. Netflix, Showmax and other streaming applications support offline downloads for several shows, meaning you can pre-load all the television you’ve decided to watch in advance.
Implement the no phone in bed rule – It’s understandable; few places provide a comfier binge-watching setting than your bed. But again, it’s all too easy to keep watching for one more episode. Using screens in bed can keep your mind active for longer than is healthy—so keep the gadgets away from your sleeping area. Another problem with phones is that their glowing displays strain our eyes. One way to limit its impact on your sleep patterns is to watch on a bigger, more distant screen instead. So, rather watch your series on a TV in your bedroom.
Control the light – Bright blue light, like the wavelengths emanating from your screen, will keep you alert and suppress the chemicals that are meant to send you to sleep. To make sure you’re able to drop off when you want to, you should stop binge-watching about half an hour before your desired bedtime. In fact, many sleep medicine societies around the world recommend turning off all screens at least 30 minutes before you sleep. While the blue light emitted from screens can, over time, cause eye problems such as retinal injury, myopia and cataracts, SKYWORTH’s S9A OLED TV is easy on the eyes. OLED doesn’t need backlight, thereby minimising the harm of blue-light hazard and making it the best choice for your family, especially the little ones. The eye protection mode of an ordinary LCD TV is at the expense of picture quality. The colour is too warm and yellow, but it can’t reduce all the harmful blue light effects.
It’s recommended that adults sleep seven hours or more per night. Anything less than that can cause problems with work or school performance, cognitive abilities, and mood. You don’t need to give up your binge watching completely, just do it responsibly, it will make you feel a whole lot better. And in these trying times, we certainly need to feel good.