Contents
- 1. Plasma in the bedroom – the road to depression
- 2. TV affects the content of dreams
- 3. With cataracts in the dark, you see better: expert opinion
- 4. TV in the dark – like a wrong workout
- 5. “Night cinema is contraindicated for people after 40 years,” the specialist is sure
- 6. Floor lamp and breaks will reduce eye strain
Doctors told how our body reacts to a bright picture in a dark room.
After work and a hearty dinner, Lenin’s quote about cinema, which for us is the most important of the arts, comes to mind. How do you watch movies in the evening? As in a real cinema – with the lights off. This way, less glare appears on the screen, making the process as comfortable as possible. Only you and the plot of the picture remain in the room, the rest is drowned in darkness. And it’s easier to fall asleep than with the lights on. But what do doctors think of this habit?
How to watch TV correctly: in the dark or in the light
1. Plasma in the bedroom – the road to depression
Psychologists can safely divide patients with insomnia and depression into two groups – some have a TV in the bedroom, others do not. Guess which group has more people?
Most of those who have plasma in front of the bed will assure that it is easier for them to fall asleep this way. And in general, let the kids go to bed in silence and without light. In fact, there is an effect on sleep. And his name is melatonin, which is called a natural sleeping pill for the body. Thanks to melatonin, in the morning we are ready to move mountains at work with one left hand, and with the other – to raise children.
When the TV flickers blue or any other light source, melatonin is not produced in the body. Therefore, in the morning, neither coffee nor shower can cheer us up. Hence, irritability, drowsiness, fatigue.
Psychologists from Ohio in the United States conducted an experiment, they observed people who regularly watch television at night in the dark. It turned out that such a habit affects the psyche of the individual and can lead to prolonged depression.
2. TV affects the content of dreams
You turned off the light, and the body has already begun to prepare for sleep, slowing down all processes. Films and programs, where there are dramas, scandals, screams, explosions and scenes of violence, lead to the fact that the psyche is overexcited. Sleep becomes restless. And you don’t necessarily see exactly the scenes that were shown on TV. But restless and frightening sleep is a reaction to a stimulus.
3. With cataracts in the dark, you see better: expert opinion
– With certain types of cataracts and with low light levels, the image on the TV screen really does see better. This is typical for cataracts, which are located in the central part of the lens. More often, such an anomaly occurs in young patients, age-related cataracts are almost always opacities in the periphery.
People with early stages of cataract can often feel as though they can see TV more clearly in the dark. Of course, against the background of the surrounding darkness, the image on the screen can be perceived more brightly through the clouded lens. But all the previously described negative effects remain.
While cataracts can be treated relatively easily by lens replacement, diseases associated with degradation of the eye muscles or damage to the retina require longer treatment. Therefore, watching TV in the dark with cataracts is a bad way to see clearly. In this case, the person needs treatment, not harmful half measures.
4. TV in the dark – like a wrong workout
Imagine that your eyes are two athletes, they need training to maintain their shape and performance. There are special exercises for the eyes, the simplest of which is to choose two points, one close, the other far. We must alternately look at the first, then at the second. This is called refocusing at different distances.
What happens when we watch TV? There is no such refocusing – we stared at one object – the screen. There is no training, but the tension is there. As if you took a barbell without preparation and just hold it, not knowing what to do with it. A fitness trainer would explain, but TV is a bad expert, so your eyes keep the tension from the cutscene to the end credits.
Regularly watching TV in the dark overexerts the eye muscles, and the functionality of the pupil gradually decreases. This is due to the lack of accommodation, that is, refocusing at different distances. At the same time, the bright flickering of the TV not only makes the muscles responsible for the width of the pupil work chaotically, but also irritates the retina, negatively affecting it with long light waves, ” said Sergei Chub.
5. “Night cinema is contraindicated for people after 40 years,” the specialist is sure
The grandmothers were right when they said not to watch TV in the dark: “You’ll plant your eyes this way”. This secret knowledge was not given to them from the newspapers. This is an experience. Children and young people may not notice the negative effect of light waves on vision, but with age, nighttime TV viewing begins to hurt their eyes, and then their head.
“Viewing in the dark is not harmful to young people,” explains the doctor Tatyana Shilova. – But after 40, our lens increases in size, and in some categories of patients, and especially farsighted patients are at risk, watching TV in the dark can increase eye pressure. Therefore, you need to visit an ophthalmologist to understand if you have a predisposition to angle-closure glaucoma, in which watching TV in the dark is contraindicated.
6. Floor lamp and breaks will reduce eye strain
It is impossible to give up your favorite programs and movies, and for the sake of art, moviegoers are even ready to go blind a little. But catering to your tastes and health at the same time is not so difficult. Doctors say – the first compromise: if there are problems with the optics of the eye, it cannot be tolerated.
If you have hyperopia, myopia, astigmatism, or a combination of these problems, then you must definitely use the correction, it does not harm or worsen vision. Correctly selected optics allows the accommodation apparatus to work correctly, to correctly focus the image on the retina, without eye strain, – advises Tatiana Shilova.
These can be glasses, lenses or laser vision correction. If there are no obvious eye problems, then help maintain health:
Breaks every hour. It is imperative to pause in work every hour to look into the distance for several minutes, thus changing the focal length. This is necessary so that the muscle inside the eye is not overstrained.
Use eye drops… When working in front of the monitor for extended periods, use moisturizing drops to create a protective coating and restore tear film.
Lamp. There should be sources of additional lighting in the room. For example, a backlight behind a TV, a floor lamp, a dim overhead light.
Body position… Observe the correct position of your back and neck while viewing. A twisted posture when lying or sitting impairs blood flow and even harms our eyes.