Why you can't sleep with the TV on: scientific explanation

Scientists have found the answer to why people get tired when they fall asleep in front of the TV. Unfamiliar voices increase brain activity and interfere with a restful night's sleep.

According to the Daily Mail, this conclusion was reached by researchers from Austria. They measured the brain activity of sleeping adults in response to familiar and unfamiliar voices.

Hearing unfamiliar voices in a dream made the human brain "tune in" during non-rapid eye movement sleep, the first stage of sleep.

However, the researchers did not notice this effect during the deepest stage of sleep, probably due to microstructural changes in the brain.

Despite the fact that our eyes are closed to what is around us, the brain continues to monitor the environment while we sleep, balancing the need for sleep protection with the need to wake up.

According to experts, one way to achieve this is to selectively respond to unfamiliar voices while ignoring familiar ones.

This may go back to the long process of human evolution and the need to wake up quickly to potential danger characterized by less familiar auditory signals.

In general, the study suggests that unfamiliar voices, such as those coming from the TV, interfere with a restful night's sleep because the brain is in a state of high alert.