Reducing evening television watching to improve sleep and productivity

Behavior Change

Changing a Behavior: Excessive Television Watching

Target Behavior

The behavior I will be targeting for this project is a tendency to watch too much television, especially in the hour immediately preceding my going to sleep. I have difficulties sleeping, and though I have used television consistently as a way to relax and try to ease myself into sleep, I have become worried that I spend far too much time watching television, and might actually sleep better -- and get to sleep earlier -- if I watched less. From now on, I would like to limit my television to no more than one hour from the time I get home in the evening until I go to bed, to take place no less than an hour and a half before I turn in. I want to change this behavior because I believe it will help me in two ways. First, I think that I might sleep more, and sleep better, if I watched less television, and second, I think that cutting down on my television would help me be generally more productive.

My hopes for the new behavior are that, in addition to cutting down total time spent watching television to an hour in the evening at least an hour and a half before I go to bed, is that my studying will improve, that I will sleep more hours every night and that my sleep will be less interrupted, and that my general productivity and mood during the day will both be lifted. In order to test this, I have calculated the amount of time I send watching television and sleeping on the average work/school day. I generally start watching television between six and seven, and continue until approximately midnight -- a whopping five to six hours a night. It takes me as long as an hour to fall asleep, and I am up at six-thirty. This means that I spend almost the same amount of time sleeping that I spend watching television.

The Implementation

Though I broke with my plan on the weekends (Friday and Saturday nights only; twice I fell asleep watching television on the couch and I watched more than my allotted hour the other two nights), I managed to restrict myself to single hour of television at a specific time every evening. Keeping track of exactly when I fell asleep was difficult (completely impossible, actually), but I was generally in bed and trying to sleep an hour to two hours sooner than I had been while watching television. I also appeared to be falling asleep sooner, as my last-remembered glances at the clock grew closer and closer to the time I had shut the lights off. Again, however, it is impossible to state this with any certainty, as I did not have a research assistant present to time the exact instant when I truly fell asleep.

I can say with a fair degree of certainty that I awoke less during the night then I usually do, starting on the third night. For the duration of the experiment, I kept a simple tally sheet next to my bed to mark the number of times I awoke (that is, the number of times I was conscious enough to make a tally mark). This number dropped off from a height of five on the nights before the intervention, to only two on the third day and only one every few days in the second week. I still felt exhausted waking up at six-thirty in the morning (and I'll intervene with my boss about that next), but I perked up much faster and felt generally more rested and energetic throughout the day, also starting after the third night of the intervention. The increased sleep and/or the more restful sleep were definitely having an effect.

There was not as obvious an effect on my mood, though this was not especially bad to begin with. I was certainly pleased that I didn't feel as tired, especially in the mornings, but moods are subjective and influenced by a great number of variables, so collecting data on this point seemed not only moot but also nearly impossible. The results of the data that was collected show that less time spent watching television directly led to more time a sleep, and a more uninterrupted and thus more restful sleep, as well.

Reflection

This intervention plan was highly successful without nay adjustments or changes being made. I found myself getting my schoolwork done faster than usual, especially during the second week of the intervention, which allowed more time for sleep and other (non-television watching) leisure activities. The fact that I was so organized with my time definitely helped me to succeeded in this intervention. Without such a clear organization, I might not have stuck to my new behaviors. long enough to see the full benefits.

Emotionally, I was at first apprehensive but gradually I grew much happier with the new behaviors. I think that having the schedule allowed me a certain period of forcing myself through -- there was a determined course of action, and not something easily mutable. I definitely wouldn't change this if trying to alter another behavior; I think the rigidity of my plan really helped me to succeed. I enjoyed this project immensely because it shows how simple real change can be.