Binge-Watching is linked to poor sleep quality and fatigue

Binge-watching is pretty key with modern streaming formats. The likes of Netflix or Amazon Prime will release an entire series of a show to encourage people to watch it hours on end, but it’s apparently not doing us a load of good.

Over doing anything is known to have its ill effect on health. For example, binge-eating or drinking. Both terrible things to do, and it seems that binge-watching is not that much different to these types of things.

This isn’t good news to me or any film and TV buffs alike, as the pleasure of watching an entire series back to back is too hard to resist at times. What we think is destressing us, is actually doing more harm than good!

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A study has been carried out by University of Leuven in Belgium and their findings show that binge-watching can cause poor sleep quality, increased fatigue as well as insomnia in young adults.

Why is this? When you think about it, you are just sat there doing literally nothing. If you do this for hours on end in front of a screen then there won’t be much good coming from it.

Binge-watching apparently causes heightened alertness, which is suspected to be the link between the poor sleep quality and insomnia. Especially if people are binge-watching just before they plan to sleep.

According to researchers, around 80% of young adults identify themselves as a binge-watcher. At least 20% of these binge-watchers admit to doing so a few times a week sometimes. Interestingly, these binge-watchers are the ones who reported more fatigue, insomniac symptoms and poor sleep quality.

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This study was conducted on 423 young adults, all aged between 18 and 25-years-old, averaging at 22-years-old. Around 62% of participants were women and 74% of them were students. An online survey was taken to assess everything.

Binge-watching is defined as “watching multiple consecutive episodes of the same show in one sitting”. On average, a binge-watching session lasts just over 3 hours, which will usually include up to 3 or 4 episodes at a time.

Well, I’m most definitely guilty of this, and with the way that streaming is so easily accessed now, it’s very difficult to not convince yourself to watch “one more” episode. It doesn’t help when Netflix gives us entire seasons of TV shows all at once!

Are you an avid binge-watcher? Do you feel like they could be related to sleeping problems or increased fatigue? Or have you never suffered a problem? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: NDTV