What Happens To Your Body When You Watch The News Every Night Before Bed
Watching the news every night before bed can affect your body and mind in various ways, such as increasing stress levels, disrupting sleep patterns, and even affecting your mood. Moreover, it can also raise your blood pressure and increase the likelihood of experiencing nightmares. In this article, we’ll dive deep into these impacts.
The Impact on Your Stress Levels
When you watch the news before bed, especially if it features disturbing or stressful content, your body tends to release stress hormones like cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels can make it difficult for you to relax and fall asleep. As a result, you might end up lying in bed awake, staring at the ceiling.
Why Does This Happen?
Cortisol is known as the “stress hormone” because your body releases it in response to stressful situations. Watching the news often involves exposure to negative or alarming stories. Your body doesn’t differentiate between physical threats and emotional ones, so it releases cortisol in both cases.
Affects Your Sleep Quality
Now, you might be thinking, “What’s the big deal if I lose a little sleep?” Well poor sleep quality can lead to a host of other issues. For instance, lack of sleep can impair your cognitive functions, making it difficult to concentrate the next day.
The Role of Blue Light
Moreover, the blue light emitted by electronic screens can interfere with the production of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate sleep. When melatonin levels are low, you’ll find it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep.
Alters Your Mood
Consistently watching the news before bed can also affect your mood. You might start feeling anxious or depressed after being exposed to a series of negative stories. Over time, this can even have long-term psychological effects.
The Emotional Toll
The news often focuses on distressing topics, such as natural disasters or acts of violence. Regularly consuming this kind of content can make you feel emotionally drained and less optimistic about the world around you.
Increases Your Likelihood of Nightmares
Believe it or not, the type of content you consume before bed can influence your dreams. In this case, the distressing stories often featured on the news can seep into your subconscious and result in nightmares.
The Science Behind It
When you sleep, your brain processes the information and emotions you’ve experienced throughout the day. Disturbing or stressful news can manifest as nightmares, disrupting your sleep even further.
Increases Your Blood Pressure
Watching the news before bed isn’t just a mental stressor. It can also affect you physically by raising your blood pressure. Elevated blood pressure is a risk factor for various health issues, including heart disease.
Why This Is Concerning
High levels of stress and the resulting spike in blood pressure are harmful in the long run. Elevated blood pressure can lead to conditions like heart disease, stroke, and other cardiovascular issues.
Impacts on Your Physical Health
As mentioned earlier, poor sleep and increased stress levels can take a toll on your body. For many people, chronic stress can lead to physical symptoms like headaches, digestive issues, and even an increased risk of chronic diseases like heart disease.
What Can You Do?
If you find that watching the news before bed is affecting your health, consider changing your routine. You could read a book, meditate, or engage in some light exercise to help you relax before sleep. This fact doesn’t mean you should stop staying informed; rather, it suggests that you should find a healthier way to consume news.
Affects Your Perception of Reality
Believe it or not, your nightly news habit can also shape how you view the world. Research shows that consuming news regularly can influence your opinions and attitudes, often making you more cynical or biased.
The Filter Bubble
Your choice of news outlet can also put you in a “filter bubble,” where you’re only exposed to viewpoints similar to your own. This can limit your understanding of complex issues and make you less open to different perspectives.
In short, the next time you think about watching the news before bed, consider the potential impacts on your body and mind. Make a conscious choice that promotes better health and well-being.
