Tuesday, June 14, 2011

A Purely Scientific Study...

Raise your hands, any of you folks out there who often occasionally fall asleep in front of the TV in the evenings. I must confess, I doze off in front of the television quite regularly. When I was in my 20s, I had a very comfortable, butter yellow leather recliner, and I would put my feet up, turn on my favourite television program, and before I knew it ... ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.....  Now, I often curl up in my big cozy chair, put on my favourite program ... and wake up two hours later. Sometimes I have the best sleep, when I can hear the voices gently droning in the background.

Most of us lead busy lives. We get up early, we go to work and put in a full day's work, often pushing through the detritus of stressful days. We are given two days at the end of each week in which to relax, but usually those days are taken up with the day-to-day business of taking care of chores. When do we really rest?

My purely scientific study is: how many people, after a busy 15 or 16 hour day, doze off on the chesterfield in the evenings? I have been doing this all my life. My bad? I don't know. You tell me. Enquiring minds want to know...

19 comments:

Raevyn said...

I do fall asleep with the television on, pretty much every night, but I am in my bed, and it's set to shut off within a couple of hours. I've found that I need to tune in to lighter, comedic shows when I'm doing this, though, otherwise I end up dreaming that I'm in the middle of a shootout or something when the cop shows are on.

The Bug said...

My husband does this almost every evening. He'll put on a documentary & it's lights out - & I'm the one who learns all about Dolly Madison (a really cool program, I must say).

I very rarely fall asleep while watching tv - mostly because I'm never just watching tv. I'm usually doing something on my computer :)

Carol E. said...

Hubby does this more than I do, but he has always worked more hours, too. So I guess he is more tired. Lately he has been using weekends to catch up on his sleep. And man, can he SLEEP on a Saturday! He doesn't fall asleep as often in the evenings.

DJan said...

I am the one who falls asleep in front of the TV, and I don't even have the excuse of being tired after a long day at work. As a retired senior, I give myself permission to sack out as early as I want.

That said, these days it's usually while reading a book that I doze off.

young-eclectic-encounters said...

Excellent post- I fall asleep quite regularly in the recliner in front of the TV- nice to know I am not alone- we all need down time
Johnina

Shaista said...

Dear Enquiring Mind, I have never fallen asleep in front of the telly! It wakes me up no end. Tv last thing at night can keep me up till dawn. Maybe what is missing is that butter yellow reclining chair...

Russell said...

I have a very old chair I sit in when I watch TV. Bailey, my dog, occupies an equally old love seat.

Bailey falls asleep almost right away. He never seems to get into the TV shows much.

For me, I can usually last a little longer than my dog, but not much (!!). Quite often I will fall asleep and wake up 20 minutes or 1 hour or 3 hours later with the TV still going and Bailey snoring.

We then proceed to go outside (where Bailey needs to go before going to bed for the night) and then I step into the bathroom, lock the door, make sure everything is turned off and crawl into bed.

Yes, I know this sounds exciting but, heh, what can I say? I will try to tone it down a bit one of these years....!

Leslie: said...

I only fall asleep with the TV if it's dark in the room, so I keep the lights on when watching. However, I must admit to falling asleep in the afternoons (around 3 or 4) if I've settled down to read, sitting in my lovely chocolate leather recliner. I think it's a throwback to the time of day when I could "breathe" once the students had gone home. Now I think you only need to worry if you start falling asleep at work! ;)

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Maybe all this is really a commentary on how utterly boring most TV shows are.

heartinsanfrancisco said...

When I was a single mom and working full time, I used to drop off the minute I sat in a comfortable chair because my life was exhausting. I don't think anyone realizes how much mental and emotional energy it takes, besides the physical, to take care of kids and hold down a job. My heart goes out to young women who are trying their best to do these things with no help at all.

Charlene said...

I don't fall asleep in the Chesterfield but I do lay across the bed and watch the news. I'm asleep for at least an hour every time I do that.

Dennis used to do that all the time but he had an old TV that had a timer on it and he'd set it for an hour whereupon it would turn itself off.

Auntie sezzzzzz... said...

Whether one is busy, all day or not... 'Tis perfectly normal to doze off in a comfy chair, in the evening.

"Auntie" sezzzzzzzzz... :-)

~♥~

PinkPanthress said...

I do not watch Tv, but I do fall asleep with my book open very often. :)

Katy said...

I don't like having the TV on at night because I spend most of my in the middle of a busy office and at some point I just want silence.

But I agree with what you said about our busy days. I hardly do any house work in the middle of the week if I can help it so my "days off" are really just days to take of work in the house. Still I try to make an effort to have "Do nothing days" here and there both for me and my daughter. Its amazing how far a little bit of rest will go.

lovelyprism said...

I do this quite often when my son is watching something I find boring. I know I should go to bed but I somehow feel that even though I have nodded off in my recliner I'm still there for him. My own mother snored through a great many television shows, we just turned up the volume lol. I actually liked it better than sitting there alone.

HAPPY IN NEVADA said...

Hey Jo, do you know that I have to 'clear through security' on my darned new software that protects me from 'bad connections' before I can post??? Yup - for the last 6 months - what a nightmare.

However, for you dear friend, I go through the 3 Q&A's before I can finally comment!!!!

I don't watch TV very often. TV bores me. TV never puts me to sleep. However, my lovely candles; my lavender incense and beautiful music DO put me to sleep when I decide to be 'put to sleep'!!!

I sleep about 4 hours a day - been that way since I was about 8 years old (essentially 62 years).

TV is worthless to me; most irritates me - but I'm often intrigued by the 'content' so I 'suffer along'. When I can get a good PBS documentary or movie; when I find TCM has a good movie (with no commercials) and I'm up to doing some shopping channels for gifts, I swap those channels with the food channels since I love to cook. So, TV actually (if interesting) WAKES ME UP!!!!

So, to 'sleep; to dream - ah, 'tis that which soothes me with music; with fragrance - with the soft glow of candles and the memories of the things I cherish and love, do I 'drift off' and find the stars; the songs - the spirits of a previous life, and of beautiful 'things' that give me such peace, I can no longer stay awake, but want to follow that trail of memories that take me back to times of the most precious thoughts and experiences.

Essentially, TV has no effect upon 'me', but music; candles; incense - fragrances of a few kinds, and thoughts of those I love will put me to sleep in a matter of a few minutes.....

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ - Diane

Canarybird said...

I fall asleep during our siesta time, which is after lunch, the main meal of the day between 2 and 4 pm. That's when I also have a glass of red wine with the meal, so as it's an old custom here to stop all activity and have an afternoon sleep I've been doing it for years.

We wear headphones for our separate TVs and so I often wake up an hour later with the afternoon news loud in my ears. But it doesn't stop me falling deeply asleep at that time, oblivious to any sound.

They say it's good for you to have an afternoon nap every day so I'm quite happy to keep it up. :-)

Never fall asleep during evening TV though.

Paula Slade said...

From my POV falling asleep in front of the television is not a bad thing to do - so much that's on these days actually puts me into a state of restful sleep. :)

Kathryn said...

My husband falls asleep in front of the TV all the time. (Kind of bugs me if we are watching a program, because he'll deny he fell asleep but not know what was going on. We then have to reverse the program back to where he fell asleep.)

I rarely fall asleep in front of the TV. I don't like the feeling of disorientation when i do. If i'm sleepy, i go to bed!