What does sleeping in front of the TV do to our health?

Experts strongly recommend the necessity of adhering to “sleep hygiene” as it is the most important thing that can be done in order to maintain good sleep, such as sleeping in a cool room, staying away from the phone, and following a specific routine.

There is no relationship between what is known as sleep hygiene and maintaining personal hygiene (such as bathing or brushing teeth), but rather it is a term used to express good habits followed to get a good night’s sleep.

Experts describe sleep hygiene as "a variety of different practices necessary for a normal, great night's sleep and increased daytime alertness."

But many people ignore these rules from time to time, especially when it comes to lying on the couch while watching a movie or their favorite series.

Sleeping with the TV on can do more than just leave you with back pain and a poor night's sleep, it can also increase your risk of heart disease and diabetes. This is according to a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The study, conducted by medical researchers at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, US, found that exposure to “ambient light,” such as television light, while sleeping at night harms cardiovascular function and increases insulin resistance the next morning.

This increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

“The results of this study show that just one night of exposure to moderate room light during sleep can impair glucose and cardiovascular regulation,” said Phyllis Zee, MD, chief of sleep medicine in the Ken and Ruth Davey Department of Neurology at Northwestern University, who co-authored the study. "These are risk factors for heart disease, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. It is important that people avoid or reduce the amount of light exposure while sleeping."

Although the study included only 500 participants, making it less reliable than a large-scale study, previous research has found similar results.

One study conducted on more than 40,000 women, published in 2019, found that sleeping while watching TV increases the risk of weight gain and obesity, which is linked to heart disease and diabetes.

The same applies to sleeping with the house lights on or getting plenty of light through the curtains at night.

A vegetarian diet can threaten the health of pregnant women and their babies

A new study has found that vegetarian women are more likely to develop life-threatening preeclampsia and give birth to babies with lower birth weight.

According to a recent study published in the journal Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica, conducted by a team from the University of Copenhagen, children born to vegetarian mothers weighed half a pound less on average.

The researchers analyzed data from 66,738 pregnancies in Denmark between 1996 and 2002. Of those, 65,872 women identified as omnivores, while 666 said they were vegetarians (including fish and poultry), 183 were vegetarians, and 18 were vegans.

Based on a questionnaire completed midway through pregnancy, researchers found that protein intake was lower among vegetarians (13.3%) and vegans (10.4%) compared to participants who ate meat (15.4%), SWNS reports.

They noted that low protein intake may be linked to low birth weight.

The weight of a child born to a vegetarian mother was, on average, 240 grams less than the weight of a child born to a non-vegetarian mother.

The researchers also found that women who were strict vegetarians had pregnancies lasting 5.2 days longer.

“Micronutrient intake (intake of essential vitamins and minerals) was also significantly lower among vegetarians, but when dietary supplements were taken into account, no significant differences were observed,” the researchers wrote.

Vegetarian mothers had a higher prevalence of preeclampsia (a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure), a condition that results in high blood pressure, or high levels of protein in the urine that indicate kidney damage.

Preeclampsia impairs kidney and liver functions, affects blood clotting, leads to fluid accumulation in the lungs, and in severe cases can cause the death of mothers and children.