Does what you watch before bed affect your sleep? [part two]
Suspenseful shows and action-packed video games might not hurt your rest as much as you think – but there's one factor that does matter.
There is, I suppose, a way to use screens before sleep responsibly. Last week’s post discussed how blue screen light doesn’t harm sleep in the way we commonly think. Still, it’s obviously not great for your health to be on your fourth hour of TikTok in bed at 3am (even if you are learning that muskrats actually pick flowers).
I hate to use the word responsibly because at its core, it seems kind of boring. Our evening screen time is fun, delightfully carefree, slightly chaotic – a time to explore interests free from the demands of work or kids. At what other time of day can I go deep on the chemical composition of different sunscreens, or read Reddit theories about Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's nineties style? It’s indulgent.
Thankfully, there is research to guide us on the best use of screens for sleep. Like how having a few glasses of wine and staying under the blood alcohol limit to drive is indulging responsibly, there’s a way to use screens responsibly too – if you want to enjoy yourself and still feel well-rested.
Does the type of content matter?
It seems commonsense that the type of content consumed before sleep would matter: surely a show with a cliff-hanger ending or violent video games would affect sleep. But some of the more perplexing results I’ve seen in the research suggest… it kind of doesn’t.
One controlled lab study tested whether binge-watching suspenseful TV before bed – with or without cliffhangers – actually harms sleep. Participants watched episodes of suspenseful shows like The Sinner, a crime anthology series on Netflix (some with cliff hangers, some without), or a neutral documentary about environmental sustainability in Europe (I do wonder if the filmmakers know their work was used as a proxy for kind-of-boring content). The suspenseful shows raised stress, heart rate, and cortisol before bed, especially when episodes ended on cliffhangers. But surprisingly, participants actually fell asleep about 3 minutes faster after the suspenseful shows compared to the documentary. Only when cliffhangers cut off the storyline mid-action did researchers detect pretty subtle changes in sleep quality.
Similarly, violent video games seem to have a negligible effect on sleep. A 2024 review of experimental studies indicate, on average, a 3.2 to 8.5-minute difference in sleep onset after gaming. These effects are similar to social media: a Swiss study compared the effects of 30 minutes of Snapchat and WhatsApp use, 30 minutes of a progressive muscle relaxation, and a control group that just went to bed. Participants in the social media group slept only about 6 minutes less than the control group. This was a statistically significant difference, but one that most people would hardly notice.
Although these results are surprising (they surprise me!), it’s important to note they come from controlled lab settings. Real life is messy. Are we just going to stop using Snapchat after 30 minutes? Turn off the TV after a cliffhanger? Probably not.
In the real world, the best screen choices are the ones you can actually walk away from. (For me, it’s a crossword or audiobook, not Instagram). And if you struggle to stop consuming content once you’ve started, one trick is to use a device that’s a little bit boring.
TV is queen
In a tier list of electronic devices, TV is superb. Compared to phones and tablets, TV is more passive – free of swiping, socialising, and doomscrolling. Some studies show regular bedtime TV viewing has little or no impact on sleep duration.
In one Australian study, researchers compared two different bedtime activities for adolescents: playing Call of Duty or watching March of Penguins, which researchers described as a “tranquil viewing experience” (I would agree). The documentary began 50 minutes before a ‘lights out’ time, and around 30% of participants fell asleep prior to lights out. This result is, in my opinion, delightful. (On my best days, I fall asleep to an episode of Grand Designs and never really know if they finished building the house). Conversely, no one in the video game group fell asleep prior to lights out. Although the gamers only took, on average, 4.5 minutes longer to fall asleep than the documentary group, this study was again in a lab setting. Irl, the Call of Duty group may just keep playing. For the penguin watchers, many were already asleep.
TV remotes had the original ‘sleep timer’ for a reason – In my opinion, TV creates the perfect vibe for drifting off (particularly if you find a show engaging enough to keep your mind from spiralling, but not binge-worthy enough to wreck your bedtime). And one of the best things about TV? It’s delightfully anti-social, in a ‘disruption free’ kind of way.
The biggest thing: Go disruption free
A big culprit in how screens can harm sleep are disruptions after we’ve gotten into bed, or are already asleep – think notifications, messages, and emails.
Disruptions are common, and are clearly linked to poor sleep. One study found that over 70% of participants sent or received a text message between 10 pm and 6 am. Another found that university students woken by their phone at least weekly slept 48 minutes less and reported higher daytime sleepiness. A 2024 review reported that in-sleep disruptions can reduce sleep duration by 20-60 minutes. These sleep disruptions are why, even if an expert panel last year couldn’t agree that screens themselves are inherently harmful, they did agree on this: changing behavioural patterns around screens at bedtime matters.
In my own studies, disruptions seem to be a pain point for people who report poor sleep quality. Young professionals told me that, when using their phones as alarm clocks, they get sucked into Reddit overnight. New parents mentioned that having a ‘smart’ baby monitor on their phone means checking it overnight… and then also checking their email. When I struggled with insomnia about a decade ago, I stopped using my phone as an alarm clock. I put it out of reach while I was sleeping. At the time, I was just trying anything to improve my sleep. What I didn’t realise was I was being unintentionally responsible.
The biggest takeaway from the literature is that both screen and content type don’t really matter that much. March of the Penguins is certainly a tranquil viewing experience, except if Call of Duty is really nailing it for your wind down and mental health, probably just keep doing that. What does matter is creating a distraction-free environment for sleep: no texts, notifications, and anything else that will suck your brain back into your screen after you’ve gotten into bed.
Figuring how to eliminate distractions and wind down can lead to some technological creativity: personally, I keep my phone outside of my bedroom, and have some audiobooks and podcasts loaded onto an old tablet to use as a sleep aid.
And – finally – if you are really just having trouble getting into bed in the first place, next week’s post is for you. We’ll dive into the intricacies of bedtime procrastination – and why your best intentions aren’t always enough to get your best sleep.