After a restless day, many people want to find a way to escape their studies, work and so forth. Some drink, others enlist in specific hobbies, and many more go straight to the TV.
With an influx of studies revealing the pernicious effects of binge watching, it can be easy to view watching TV as an issue. It may be unproductive, sleep-depriving or insatiable. However, just like with alcohol, sweets and many other indulgences, watching television in moderation is not dangerous. Although binge watching can threaten one’s health, tuning in to a moderate amount of television can improve your mental state.
Kicking back and watching your favorite show can reduce stress. In a 2016 study asking 240 participants about media consumption and their cortisol levels, watching more TV was linked to lower cortisol levels — a steroid hormone often released when stressed — especially among women. Watching television provides an escape from the rigors of life, and sometimes just a short escape can fulfill this need.
Moreover, watching television can be therapeutic. Cinematherapy allows for viewers to hone in on the metaphors and archetypes in movies and TV shows to alleviate real life problems. Additionally, TV can indirectly educate viewers on mental health symptoms and expand on certain topics which would otherwise be hard to discuss.
You can learn a great deal from watching television for an hour. Sometimes after a grueling day, I will go home and tune in to BBC News. My knowledge of global affairs then enriches and I benefit from watching TV. Others may glue themselves to the History Channel. If you leave the television set feeling more informed, you have only benefitted.
That being said, binge watching can endanger your mental and physical well-being. Binge watching entails watching several episodes of a series in “rapid succession” or a whole series at once. In a 2017 study, 423 respondents took a survey evaluating sleep quality and time spent watching TV. Among those who reported the worst sleep quality, 32.6 percent had been binge watchers. The study concluded that higher weekly binge watching linked to worse sleep and heightened insomnia. According to the Center For Disease Control, a prolonged lack of sleep can lead to a higher chance of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity and depression.
Even though binge watching can deteriorate your health in the long run, watching small doses of television can benefit viewers. It may provide a form of therapy to some and be used by others for educational purposes. Although gorging down a whole season of Friends in a day can be counterproductive, if moderate amounts of TV help to calm you down and provide a much-needed break, it’s okay to give in every once in a while.
