For many people, TV is the only way to spend their leisure time. The desire to sit in front of him, senselessly switching channels, is akin to drug addiction. This e-mail box becomes for many not only a source of news, but also the best, reputable friend with whom you can sit well after midnight.
But these late-night gatherings in front of a flickering screen are not nearly as harmless as they might seem. Psychiatrists have long noticed that watching TV at night leads to depression, since people who are obsessed with such a mania turn to this problem more often. And quite recently, this theoretical version has found its confirmation in practice.
Scientists from the American University of Ohio have published the results of their long-term research on the effect that dim light has on the mental state of a living being. Fortunately, the subjects of the study were not humans, but two groups of common domestic hamsters. At the same time, the first group lived in standard conditions of existence, similar to the natural daytime cycle: they spent 8 hours in the dark, and 16 - in conditions of illumination of 150 lux, close to daylight. The second group also lived in daylight for 16 hours a day. The remaining 8 hours they spent not in the dark, but under 5 lux light, which is equivalent to the illumination from the TV screen.
Of course, the hamsters from the second group did not begin to complain to scientists about their bad mood and unwillingness to live. The fact that they are experiencing stress, the researchers learned from the fact that these hamsters have become indifferent to the sweetened water, so beloved in the past. Life ceased to please them, they began to behave less actively and apathetically, they began to copulate less often. In contrast to hamsters from the first group, they continue to be interested in the opposite sex and love sweet water.
The head of this interesting study, Tracy Bedrosyan, a doctoral student at the Department of Neurology at the University, believes that depression is caused by a certain protein called tumor necrosis factor. It begins to be produced in the body of a living being under the influence of weak artificial light. Fortunately, scientists have left a chance for those who like to sit at night in front of a computer monitor or TV. Studies have shown that when hamsters in the second group were returned to their normal habitat, the symptoms of depression disappeared over time.
