Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Department of Communication and Media Research, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
Sleep Med. 2023 Feb;102:186-198. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2023.01.005. Epub 2023 Jan 11.
Pre-sleep arousal impairs sleep. Therefore, watching suspenseful TV series before sleep is not recommended as they increase arousal. In particular, the consumption of multiple episodes of the same suspenseful TV series in one sitting - termed binge-watching - could lead to large increases in physiological arousal delaying sleep onset. Furthermore, abrupt endings during critical scenes - termed cliffhangers - result in unfinished story lines, which further increase cognitive arousal and could negatively impact sleep architecture and the number of awakenings. However, the effects of binge-watching and cliffhangers on objective sleep parameters are still unknown. Here we tested in a controlled sleep-laboratory setting whether pre-sleep arousal induced by watching 3-4 episodes of a suspenseful TV series has negative effects on sleep in 50 healthy young participants (39 females, mean age = 22.62 ± 2.60 (SD)). Watching a neutral TV series served as a control condition, according to a within-subject design. In one group of participants, the suspenseful TV series ended with a cliffhanger. In the other group, the same TV series ended where no ongoing action was interrupted. Pre-sleep arousal was measured both subjectively with the self-reported level of stress and objectively with the mean heart rate and cortisol level. As expected, suspenseful TV series induced higher cognitive and physiological pre-sleep arousal than neutral control TV series, with highest values for TV series with cliffhangers. In spite of the high pre-sleep arousal, participants fell asleep faster after watching the suspenseful compared with the neutral TV series (F = 4.89, p = 0.032, η = 0.09). Sleep architecture and the number of awakenings remained unaffected. However, in the first two sleep cycles, heart rate was still higher after watching suspenseful TV series (F = 6.76, p = 0.012, η = 0.12). And only after cliffhangers, objective sleep quality - measured as the ratio between slow-wave and beta activity during sleep - was lower than in the other conditions (interaction effect, F = 5.05, p = 0.029, η = 0.10). Our results speak against large impairments of pre-sleep watching of multiple episodes of suspenseful TV series and cliffhangers on sleep quality and architecture. However, unfinished narratives might induce more subtle changes in oscillatory power during sleep, possibly reflecting ongoing cognitive processing during sleep.
睡前觉醒会损害睡眠。因此，不建议在睡前观看悬疑电视剧，因为它们会增加觉醒。特别是，一次观看同一部悬疑电视剧的多集——称为 binge-watching——可能会导致生理觉醒增加，从而延迟入睡。此外，在关键场景中出现突然的结局——称为 cliffhangers——会导致未完成的故事情节，进一步增加认知觉醒，并可能对睡眠结构和觉醒次数产生负面影响。然而， binge-watching 和 cliffhangers 对客观睡眠参数的影响尚不清楚。在这里，我们在受控睡眠实验室环境中测试了 50 名健康年轻参与者（39 名女性，平均年龄 22.62 ± 2.60（SD））观看 3-4 集悬疑电视剧引起的睡前觉醒是否对睡眠有负面影响，采用了被试内设计。根据一项被试内设计，观看中性电视剧作为对照条件。在一组参与者中，悬疑电视剧以 cliffhanger 结尾。在另一组中，同一部电视剧在没有正在进行的情节中断的地方结束。使用自我报告的压力水平和平均心率和皮质醇水平来主观和客观地测量睡前觉醒。正如预期的那样，与中性对照电视剧相比，悬疑电视剧会引起更高的认知和生理睡前觉醒，带有 cliffhangers 的电视剧的值最高。尽管睡前觉醒较高，但与观看中性电视剧相比，参与者在观看悬疑电视剧后入睡更快（F=4.89，p=0.032，η=0.09）。睡眠结构和觉醒次数不受影响。然而，在头两个睡眠周期中，观看悬疑电视剧后心率仍然较高（F=6.76，p=0.012，η=0.12）。只有在 cliffhangers 之后，客观睡眠质量——测量为睡眠期间慢波和β活动之间的比值——才会低于其他条件（交互效应，F=5.05，p=0.029，η=0.10）。我们的结果表明，睡前观看多部悬疑电视剧和 cliffhangers 对睡眠质量和结构的影响不大。然而，未完成的叙述可能会在睡眠期间引起更微妙的振荡功率变化，可能反映了睡眠期间持续的认知处理。
