Improving Brain Fitness May Require Watching Less TV, Getting More Sleep!

If you watch as much television as many people and yet are concerned about brain fitness - that is, staying efficient, productive, and keeping your brain sharp, especially as you grow older - then you may want to consider cutting back on the quality time you invest sitting in front of the boob tube.

The results of numerous research studies are causing lots of people to turn a mean eye towards their television watching habit because of findings of sleep deprivation, weaker self control, lowered self-discipline, higher obesity rates, and worsening overall physical health.

Television Risks To Sleep
Scientific research unveiled at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (2009) shows that a survey of over twenty-one thousand people fifteen years of age and older admitted that watching the telly dominated most of their time prior to going to sleep, meaning that their sleep pattern is determined by network programming.

Forty percent of Americans don't get the recommended seven to eight hours necessary for maintaining balanced physiological and psychological health. University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researcher Dr. David Dinges and team say, "According to our results, watching less television in the evening and postponing work start time in the morning appear to be the candidate behavioral changes for achieving additional sleep and reducing chronic sleep debt. While the timing of work may not be flexible, giving up some TV viewing in the evening should be possible to promote adequate sleep."

Television May Be Putting Ten Pounds On Those Watching It, Rather Than Those On Screen!
University of Alberta researchers conducted a study of college students and made a shocking discovery that participants who reported medium to high volumes of TV watching snacked more than those who watched less, increasing their odds of being overweight. Professor John Spence is one of the authors of the study and says, "The exposure to the advertising seems to stimulate a desire to eat that particular food product. Also, sitting watching TV provides a prime opportunity to snack."

Children Watch Too Much TV For Proper Brain Fitness Development
A collaborative study four hundred and forty-four middle school kids around age fourteen, conducted by the University of Haifa and Jezreel Valley College, reveals that kids in middle school who have a computer or television in their bedroom get less sleep during the school year, getting to bed an average of thirty minutes later than kids who do not house either in their rooms. The study reports an average of two hours and forty minutes of daily tv watching with rampant percentages of kids eating in front of the television.

Lack Of Sleep Connected To Obesity And Lack Of Self-Control
Five hundred and ninety-one kids underwent a research study done by the University of Auckland in New Zealand who found that children sleeping less than nine hours showed nearly a four percent increase in body fat and higher emotional liability scores.

Much scientific research tells us that the mental habits we develop as kids continue with us into adulthood. So, when we so plainly see that television affects how we spend our time, how we use our brains, and our emotional states - thereby affecting how well we perform in life - then it's easy to see how watching less television is better for our overall physical health and less detrimental to our brain fitness.

Unhappy People More Attuned To Television
A 2008 University Of Maryland study based on a multi-year general social survey showed that people who are unhappy watched much more TV than people who are better adjusted. The authors of the research found that unhappy people watched an average of twenty percent more television than average.
Reading this information, you may want to track exactly how much you are watching, consider what kind of content has been capturing your attention, and ascertain what is going on in your own thoughts and emotions that would compel you to engage such programming. When you take stock of your life and the goals you would like to achieve, you may want to honestly assess how much your television habit may be harming your potential quality of life and brain fitness conditioning.