I’m sure we can all remember a time when someone told us that sitting too close to the TV will “Turn our eyes square”. Ever since TVs first entered our homes decades ago, they’ve long been associated with unhealthy and sedentary lifestyles. But is watching TV for long stretches of time actually bad for you? And does every 2 hours of TV you watch really shorten your life?
When it comes to health, it can sometimes be difficult to tell fact from fiction. What health advice can be taken as fact, and what health advice is merely scaremongering to get your attention?
If you want to find out whether your TV habits may be shortening your life, you’ll want to keep reading down below. In this article, we’ve combed through the myths to find everything you actually need to know.
Can 2 Hours Of TV Really Shorten Your Life?
Countless studies across the years have determined a link between sedentary lifestyles and a risk of premature death. Living a sedentary lifestyle with a distinct lack of exercise can vastly increase an individual’s risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes, amongst others. Many studies have thus been able to draw a connection between TV binge-watching and a shortened lifespan.
However, the connection between shortened life expectancy and TV is not necessarily down to the TV itself. Instead, it’s down to what we do in front of it. When many of us sit down in front of the box, we do so to unwind and relax after a long day at work! To further help us to relax, we also often indulge in snacks and foods to our heart’s content. This tendency toward binge-eating while binge-watching is what links TV watching to a shortened life expectancy.
2 hours of TV could potentially shorten your life. But it’s not because of the TV. Instead, it’s due to the increased tendency to binge eat snacks and other foods while reclined in front of the box!
As such, it’s possible to say that watching 2 hours of TV could potentially shorten your life. But it ultimately depends on what you do while watching the TV! It’s not the TV itself that puts your life at risk! Studies into other sedentary activities, such as driving cars or working at a desk found that there was no link to shortened life expectancy! This further suggests that watching too much TV is bad if you’re enjoying it while mindlessly munching on food!
Is It OK To Just Watch TV All Day?
We’ve all had those days. You wake up feeling groggy, the weather is torrential, and there’s nothing on the schedule. So why not have a lazy day in front of the TV? But you might be wondering if engaging in a day of binge-watching is bad. Will it impact your health?
Generally, having a lazy day in front of the TV every now and again is totally fine. Watching TV all day would only pose a true problem if you were to do it consistently, day in and day out. This decrease in physical activity would put you at great risk of weight gain, heart disease and other conditions.
If you do plan to have a lazy day in front of the TV, just be sure to take regular breaks, and to periodically stand up and move around. Even stepping away from the TV for a few minutes every hour can help to keep you physically and mentally healthy. Make sure to also moderate your snack intake!
What Are The Health Risks Of Watching Too Much TV?
So what would happen if you were to watch too much TV? What risks would be associated with lounging about in front of the TV for multiple days at a time? Let’s take a look.
Eye Strain
While watching too much TV won’t cause your eyes to turn square, it can cause uncomfortable and frustrating eye strain. TV watching slightly confuses the eyes, which can cause them to strain. Our eyes have to work harder to focus on the image on the screen. This means that when you finish watching TV, you’ll find that your eyes feel distinctly tired.
When watching TV, you’re also far less likely to blink. Long periods without blinking can lead to your eyes feeling dry and irritated, resulting in eye strain.
You might find that eye strain makes it harder to fall asleep once you finally tuck yourself into bed. The reason for this is likely because of high levels of blue light. Blue light moves on a wavelength that is much shorter than others. This results in glare that can make it harder for your eyes to focus.
Weight Gain
When you’re reclined on your favourite spot on the sofa, it’s not likely that you’re going to want to move. Lying prone on the sofa for a number of hours means you aren’t using energy. This means that any energy you might derive from food would simply be stored as fat in the body!
The amount of weight gained from a sedentary lifestyle can depend on the amount of food eaten. If you’re prone to snacking while watching TV, then you’ll be more likely to put on weight!
Neck And Back Pain
When you’re really engrossed in your favourite TV shows, you likely won’t notice the strange and awkward positions that your body twists itself into. While we might feel extra comfy in some of these awkward positions, they can cause a significant strain on the neck and back. This will result in an incredible ache when you finally step up from the sofa!
Neck and back pain can also be caused by an awkwardly positioned TV screen. If your TV is positioned at an odd angle, you may need to twist your body just to take in the image. You might have to twist your back to find a comfy position on the sofa or crane your neck just to be able to see the TV. We’d recommend ensuring that your TV is around eye level at all times, to avoid any part of your body straining!
Healthy Habits For TV Watching
It’s not the TV itself that can impact your health, but instead the habits around it. So what are some of the ways you can improve your TV-watching experience while also taking your health into account? Keep reading below, because we’ve collected some of the best healthy habits for watching TV!
Don’t Stay Up Too Late
Sometimes the temptation to stay up and watch another episode of that gripping box set is just too much. It’s only another hour! You can sleep that off tomorrow!
When it gets towards the late hours of the night, we’d recommend resisting the urge to keep watching! In fact, we’d recommend switching your TV off completely at least an hour before you plan to go to bed! This will help to ensure that you can fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow and that you wake up feeling refreshed!
Watching TV is engaging, and it is great for really stimulating your mind. However, this mental excitement can make it very difficult to unwind and relax before drifting off to sleep. As well as this, blue light from TV has been linked to a lack of sleep. We’d recommend turning the TV off, cosying up in bed, and reading a few chapters of a book before drifting off!
Missing out on sleep can have a severe impact on your physical and mental health. Though it might be tempting to watch “just one more episode”, make sure to prioritise your rest!
Set Some Limits
If you have a tendency to binge-watch TV for hours at a time, it can be good to establish limits before you start watching. You could set yourself a limit of only four episodes of your favourite show, before turning the TV off to do something else.
Establishing limits ahead of time helps you to resist the temptation to keep watching when the opportunity presents itself. This can also help to keep you from mindlessly binge-watching which normally leads to mindless binge-eating!
Lower The Brightness
A simple but effective measure to keep your eyes from straining, and to help aid with comfortable sleep is to lower the brightness of your TV. Lowering your TV’s brightness helps to keep your eye muscles from straining, and also reduces your exposure to blue light. You’ll find that, after reducing the brightness, you’re able to sleep far more easily each night.
Take Breaks
Planning on having a lazy day on the sofa? Make sure to take plenty of breaks away from the TV screen!
For every hour of TV watching, we’d recommend you get up from the sofa, stretch, and relax your mind for around 5 to 10 minutes. Take a walk to the kitchen and make yourself a healthy snack, or finish up one of those chores that’s been weighing on your mind for days!
Every 20 minutes of TV, we’d also recommend that you take 20 seconds to look at something in the distance, around 20 feet away. This is referred to as the “20-20-20” rule. This helps to relax your eyes and keeps them from drying out.
Keep Moving
While it’s great to have a lazy day to recharge your body and mind, it’s still good to keep moving. Even if you simply take a brisk walk up the road, your mind and body will thank you for the break away from screens.
If you want to fit in some episodes of your favourite show alongside some exercise, then you can also position some of your favourite exercise equipment in front of the TV. This helps to keep you from being sedentary, and keeps your mind engaged while you get your body moving!
Monitor Your Snack Intake
Most importantly, it’s crucial to monitor your snack intake. Binge-eating is what makes extensive TV time so risky. Make sure to be conscious of exactly how much you are eating when watching TV. Taking breaks from TV content can help you to do this, as you won’t find yourself mindlessly shoving snacks into your mouth as the hours tick away!
It can also be great to find a way to keep your hands engaged while watching TV. Even simple activities like knitting and other arts and crafts can keep your hands engaged. Oftentimes, people will find themselves snacking when their hands are left idle, with nothing to do. Grabbing a snack keeps the hands occupied!
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Watching 2 Hours Of TV Shorten Your Life?
Watching TV for 2 hours could potentially shorten your life by a few minutes. However, it depends on what you’re doing in front of the TV. The link between TV watching and shorter life expectancy comes from the tendency to binge eat. If you’re sitting in front of the TV eating mountains of snacks, then it would be an unhealthy way to pass the time.
How Much TV Per Day Is OK?
Generally, you should try to limit your TV screen time to around 2 hours per day. This is enough time to allow you to kick back and relax without tiring out your eyes or resulting in you slumped in front of the TV for hours at a time. You can watch more TV during the day, provided you combine it with plenty of time away from the screen, engaging in exercise.
Is 12 Hours Of Screen Time Bad?
Watching TV for 12 uninterrupted hours would be very unhealthy. It could have a severe impact on your posture, as well as the health of your eyes. Such sedentary activity could also potentially be linked to weight gain. It’s important to take plenty of breaks when watching hours of TV.
How Do I Lower My Screen Time
If you find yourself staring into screens a little too often, then a great way to lower it is to reduce the time spent on your phone. When you find yourself reaching for your phone, in search of mindless distraction, make a conscious note of it. This will help you lower your screen time in small but measurable ways!
