Move over beer belly – it's a tube belly
Bottom Line: Personally, I can’t imagine falling asleep with the TV on. That’s in part because I struggle to fall asleep with nothing on, a face mask and under the influence of melatonin and antihistamines. If you can, I’d say good for you but as it turns out... it’s not.
A study published by the National Institutes for Health went further to explain why TV and any ambient light is bad for our health. Think about this for a moment. Until about a hundred and twenty years ago what happened at night fall? Darkness. Plain darkness. Save candles and lamps (which were often expensive and used sparingly by most) you went to bed. There was nothing else to do. And how dark was it?Pitch,save stars and moonlight. What researchers found is that our bodies are designed for that full cycle. Light and dark. If we don’t give it the dark, we screw our bodies natural functions’ up considerably according to the study.
Prolonged exposure to light into the night is linked to a worse metabolism and increased risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, depression and obesity in women. Other than that, it’s great. Not exactly, right? The study found that keeping lights on at night, from the TV to lights in the room increase your risk of those by 30% over time. Just in case you needed a little added motivation to turn off the tube.