To think you do not need the TV on in order to fall asleep?

[Boomerwang]

My OH and one of our lodgers reckon they can't fall asleep without putting the tv on first. I couldn't do that, the rise and fall in pitch and volume would drive me mad, if the flashes across the room didn't.

I think it's a waste of electricity. My OH often falls asleep on the sofa as I will not have a tv in our bedroom. I get cross when he's lying there drooling as I'm trying to find a spot to sit down and feed our baby at 5am.

Who else needs noise to sleep? Why??

[StrawberryTot]

My dp often falls asleep on the sofa in front of the tv either watching it or playing the Xbox, I on the other hand loathe tvs I refuse outright to have one upstairs!!

[StaceymReadyForNumber3]

We always go to sleep with the tv on a timer. It can take me ages to fall asleep otherwise.

Right now being pg I wake in the night and usually put podcasts on low to get back to sleep as dh will invariably have hidden the remote the tv will have turned off.

[missymoomoomee]

I can't sleep without the tv or music on. I don't know why, I hate silence during the day too. I set a timer so it goes off after I haven't changed channel for 2 hours but I often wake up and put it back on.

Sometimes dh wants peace to sleep in, I lie for hours in the dark, bored then overthinking things so maybe it is just something to take my mind off the stresses and strains of the day.

[Joiningthegang]

My dh finds it helps for tinnitis

I find it stops me streesing or over thinking before bed

[ShadowsCollideWithPeople]

I'm anxious, especially at night. I've had trouble sleeping since I was about 6, when I used to lie awake worrying that everyone I loved might die. I used to read myself to sleep, but that does not work anymore. DP works very late, often, and the house seems so quiet. So a DVD playing (very quietly) on the laptop stops me from freaking out about every little noise and creak.

Also, I have recently started working shifts, so am sometimes arriving home when DP is heading off (we seem to always be on opposite schedules). So, when I am trying to sleep at 7am, some TV or a movie drowns out the sounds of school children passing by our house (we have 3 schools within a few minutes of us, it can get rather loud). LittleprincessinGOLDrocks, Pretty Woman is one of my favourite early morning movies. It is just such easy viewing. I have stuck it on at 7am-ish about 4 times in the past 2 weeks .

[LivingInAGoldBubble]

I used to be happy to sleep in silence and darkness but break in means bedroom door is half open with hall light on and a very stressful time means I find it hard to sleep in silence. I use iplayer on my iPad and pick a radio programme. It means I am concentrating and not worrying, usually drift off by the end.

[RobinSucks]

I'm fairly sure my upstairs neighbour has his TV on to sleep, it seems to never be off day or night! I hate it, the up-and-down, different pitches and noises. On the other hand, I can't sleep at all in a silent room. I have a fan on every night, all year, til it gets too cold. Mind you even with it on I barely sleep, 4 hours is an epic long sleep for me!

I did buy a baby sound machine for when it gets too cold for the fan but it's rubbish, 4 tracks of static which kind of changes up and down pitch and one of a waterfall with bloody squarking birds! I can't sleep with any light at all, even an LCD or anything so I keep my radio in the lounge. I really hope to find a solution one day, I haven't slept longer than 5 hours a night in years!

[Boomerwang]

Crikey it's really common then? I need dark, and silence. Luckily (or not?!) I'm almost completely deaf in one ear so I sleep on my good ear if it's noisy nearby.

Fliss I used to feed the baby in the bedroom but on the few occasions my OH slept in his bed he moaned about it. I'm not moving her around to suit him. He knows that if he's on the sofa when we get up, he has to move out of the way. It's just a performance to get him to wake up, so sometimes I just shove his legs off and sit down.

[Weirdandwonderful]

Pitch black and total silence for me. I can't even sleep with an alarm clock ticking, it drives me mad

[BitOutOfPractice]

Thank you bran I'm giving it a go tonight along with a large glass of wine wish me luck!

[quirrelquarrel]

LeQueen: I'm very grateful that my Mum got me into good sleep habits when I was little

That's v. interesting. Can it really just be a matter of early discipline? How many times do you have to repeat something before it becomes a habit, 27 or so? you could easily train yourself out of something by admission of that then.

[GrumpyOldWomanToo]

I have a feeling the world is becoming a very strange place.

Can you imagine, 100 years ago, someone arranging a stage-play in the bedroom every night, so they could fall asleep!

I'm glad I'm old.

[TrinityRhino]

Fuzzpig, I could have written your post

[izzybobsmum]

I have tinnitus, and always have the TV on to fall asleep to. Like a lot of others who've commented, I set the timer so the TV turns itself off. I'm on my fifth night of trying to watch Serendipity all the way through, but I can't seem to get past the first 15 minutes! Mind you, watching John Cusack over and over's not a bad way to fall asleep :-)

[littlemisssarcastic]

I used to sleep with the bedroom door ajar, so the light was coming in, but now sleep with the door almost closed so it's quite dark, and silence.
I think I prefer it that way so I can hear DD in the night. For some reason, I don't like to close the door properly, but could easily sleep if I had to.

DD sleeps in the dark with the door ajar and complete silence and has done since she was born.

OTOH, my mother has the tv on every night to go to sleep, and when I asked her why, she said it was because it made her less afraid of burglars.
If a burglar was going to break in, surely the quieter it is, the better, so you can hear them properly?

[DilysPrice]

Unfortunately it does seem that working nights long term will increase your breast cancer risk measurably yes, there's a bunch of good quality research on the subject. I don't know what tactics might work to counteract that risk.

[SchrodingersMew]

I need the TV on, I have an over active imagination and get really scared and teary at night and if there isn't anything to distract me from that I will not sleep and will lie scared.

[YouSmegHead]

There are some really good free ones aimed at babies too

[LittleprincessinGOLDrocks]

When I worked nights I could only sleep when I put a film on in the morning when I got in. Usually it was "Pretty Woman" and I never got past the part where Richard Gere drives off up the hill at the begining of the film.
Without that on I would just toss and turn for hours.

[ShellyBoobs]

Thanks, DilysPrice.

So (going slightly OT here) is there a similar risk for night-shift workers who have to sleep in the daytime and hence very likely in a non-darkened room?

[Glittertwins]

I often have the tv on to fall asleep to. DH hates me doing this so I usually use my iPod or iPad, both of which have time outs. I usually put something on that I know inside out so there are no surprises. I couldn't have my music on ad I'd be wondering what would come on next!
If I'm really tired, I can sleep through anything, including falling asleep with my head resting on a bass amp during band practice.

[hoopieghirl]

My dp needs to have background noise on to fall asleep drives me crazy mythbusters or how its made at 3:30am in the morning drives me nuts :(

[DilysPrice]

Btw the Breakthrough Breast Cancer questionnaire asks you about how dark a room you sleep in - so whilst it's not proven it's a highly respectable theory not just another Daily Failism.