This is What Happens when You Binge Watch TV ...

Watching TV usually isn’t an “active” activity. You’re usually sitting down. And when you binge watch TV, you sit down a lot, and it’s not good for you. There is a great concern among physicians that the sedentary lifestyle, TV watching being the primary sedentary activity. It’s especially prevalent among people who are older, creating an additional health burden for the aging population. Take care that if you binge watch TV, get up every now and again to move around and keep your circulation going.

They always say you can get too much of a good thing. The same goes with TV. When you sit and watch TV even for short periods of time, you’re relaxing, and so is your brain. It moves its activity to the right side of the brain, which processes music, interpretation of context and visual imagery. But suddenly you will have to stop watching, because you have to sleep some time. Your brain’s switched to the left side, responsible for logic and task-oriented actions. This sudden change after an extended time of feeling relaxed and happy may actually cause you to feel bad.

Binge watching TV can have a negative influence on your social life. If you see anyone, they need to be as invested in the binge as you are, and even then, not much real talking will be going on. You may miss out on outings with friends, invitations to parties or dinners, or get-togethers with family. If you have a significant other, they will certainly feel shut out when you prefer your binge-watching over company with them. You’d give up nearly anything just so you can finally find out what happened at the end of the TV show.

People who binge-watch TV are always tempted to keep watching well into the night. After all, it’s so easy, particularly If you’re watching on a service such as Netflix, where a little box pops up that says, “The next episode will begin in 15 seconds…” you suddenly feel like sleep is for sissies and you’ll catch this next episode, which turns into 3 and you meet yourself getting up. But, likely as not, you WON’T hear the alarms and you won’t get up because you haven’t had any sleep all night.

You might think this is a great thing, right? And to some extent, it is. However, if you are using your binge TV watching to escape something in your life, it might not be the best thing you can do for your health. People going through a tough time in their life may use the TV to get away from the thing causing them pain, but this is only okay for a short amount of time-what will help you more than anything is go get out and do things, not stay on your couch and vegetate.

Sometimes you get so caught up on the characters and the story line that you forget it’s totally fake and no one really lives that way. You might even unconsciously live your life through them or try to adopt elements of the show into your own life. Plus, deep down inside, you know sitting around watching TV for hours on end is not the best way to live your life, and your self-esteem is likely to plummet them more you waste time one a TV show and not your own dreams and ambitions.

You may not get out of your jammies, or you may not shower. You probably skip brushing your teeth and dishes may pile up in the kitchen sink. You won’t eat anything that can’t be warmed up quickly in the microwave. You may not even get up off the sofa except to go to the bathroom. This isn’t taking care of yourself, and you may even be harming yourself.

I think therefore, the secret is to break your binging up into smaller time periods and clean up or cook during breaks. That way you get all the joys of binge-watching and none of the side effects.

How often do you binge watch?