Why Falling Asleep with the TV Could Affect the Quality of Your Rest

If you leave your tv on all night, a large chunk of your slumber could be affected.

New research out of Austria suggests falling asleep with the tv on might be messing with the quality of your sleep. In an interesting study, doctors scanned people’s brains while they slept, and found that hearing unfamiliar voices, like actors on a tv show can trigger something called “micro-arousals.” That’s when you almost wake up and if it happens too many times, you can end up groggy the next day. It didn’t make a difference during rem cycles, or deep sleep. It only mattered during non-rem sleep. But, a full night’s rest is only about 20% rem. So, if you leave your tv on all night, a large chunk of your slumber could be affected.