We all do it. We plan on just watching that film for another five minutes, or until the next ad break, and end up waking up hours later passed out on the couch. And now thanks to our Netflix obsession, we could be damaging our mental health by crashing out in front of that rom-com. According to by Dr. Guy Meadows of The Sleep School, that faint TV light in the background could be seriously disrupting your sleep and hormone levels: “We’re designed to sleep in the dark. When the sun comes up, the light receptors in the retina at the back of the eye tell us it’s time to wake up by inhibiting the release of melatonin, the hormone that makes us sleepy.” While it’s no shock that sleeping with the TV on can prevent you from ever reaching a deeper level of sleep, Meadows also points out that the habit could be affecting your moods. “Tiredness dampens down the effect of the pre-frontal cortex in the brain, which is responsible for more rational thought and causes us to use the part of the brain responsible for emotion called the amygdale.” Supporting this theory, a study from Ohio State University examined the relationship between light and depression. Leading the study, Tracy Bedrosian took 16 hamsters, dividing them into groups of two and then exposed to bright lights for 16 hours of the day. For the next eight hours, half of the hamsters were exposed to “true darkness,” while the other half was exposed to dim lights, those that mimicked the effect of a television at night. According to Bedrosian’s report, the hamsters subjected to dim light scored “significantly lower on a series of mood tests,” after eight weeks. Another author of the study wrote: “The darkness-deprived hamsters drank 20 percent less sugar water than the other group, for example, suggesting they weren’t getting the same enjoyment out of activities they used to find pleasurable.” The “depressed group” of hamsters were also noted to give up sooner in the swimming portion of the experiment, adding to a long list of ‘major differences’ between the two groups. So what does this mean for those dozing in front of the rolling credits? It might be time to switch off the set and head to bed. Even if you use your TV as company for sleep, in the long-run, it’s one habit you’re probably better off breaking. H/T Huffington Post