With that in mind, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional society founded in 1975, has taken it upon itself to set out some guidelines for enjoying top-notch shows while making sure your body and brain get enough rest. We can show you how to implement them. If you have trouble obeying this type of limit, you might have to trick yourself. One way to do this is by downloading episodes onto your phone. Because Netflix and other services support offline downloads for many shows, you can pre-load all the television you’ve decided to watch in advance. Then put your phone in airplane mode to stop yourself from exceeding your limits. This download ability also lets you catch up with Bridgerton on the subway ride to work, instead of staying up watching it the night before. Stressed about finishing an episode on your commute? Try reserving some daylight hours when you’ll be able to watch without worrying about missing your stop or blowing past your bedtime. The AASM advises you to ease the binge-watching pressure by setting aside relaxed viewing time over the weekend. Another problem with phones is that their glowing displays strain our eyes. All that staring at your phone is unhealthy, and one way to limit its impact on your sleep patterns is to watch on a bigger, more distant screen instead. So instead of using your phone in bed, try streaming that media to a television.
Control the light
Bright blue light, like the wavelengths emanating from your video screen, will keep you alert and suppress the chemicals supposed 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, the AASM recommends turning off all screens at least 30 minutes before you sleep. For iPhone users, there’s a blue-light-reduction feature called Night Shift built right into iOS. It can automatically adjust the color of the screen during evening hours so that the display will emit reddish rather than bluish light. To find it, open the Settings app and then head to Display & Brightness. In fact reducing any blue light exposure after sunset could help steady your sleep cycle. So you should try cutting down on the amount of blue light your smartphone or laptop emits—and yes, there’s an app for that. Several apps, in fact. Apple has also included the same feature in macOS. To set it up on your computer, open the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, and open the Displays dialog. Under the Night Shift heading on the right, you can set the color change schedule and strength as necessary, just as on iOS. Android phones have a similar feature called Night Light. To activate it, go to Settings, Display, and tap on Night Light. You can schedule a daily start and end time, and customize the intensity by dragging the slider. The AASM recommends 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 to reach this goal, but these tips should let you get a handle on your viewing habits—and make you feel a lot better.
