We thought there truly was nothing like the delicious sound of Mark Darcy declaring "I like you, just as you are," to send us into a deep slumber.
But recent research has revealed that watching rom-coms before bed is actually bad for our sleep.
Not only that, the research carried out by Sleep Junkie, found that watching a romantic film or loved-up TV show is actually worse than watching a thriller or horror movie.
The study of more than two hundred Americans found that participants who watched TV before falling asleep were three times as likely to wake up feeling tired than those who did not engage in any media before sleep.
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And those who watched horror or thriller shows before bed slept on average one hour and five minutes longer than those who watched something romantic.
The sleep science and review platform studied how falling asleep listening to music, TV or podcasts affects sleep quality.
Participants were given sleep trackers to analyse how long it took them to fall asleep, how restless they were and they were then asked how they felt when they woke up.
Those who watched reality TV before bed also slept better than those who watched romance and participants who watched thriller or horror slept the most overall, although it took them longer to fall asleep. Probably due to double locking all the doors and checking under the bed.
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Participants were asked to aim for nine hours sleep in total.
Average amount of sleep per genre
- Romance - 6 hours 45 mins
- Comedy - 6 hours 55 mins
- Reality - 7 hours 17 mins
- Action - 7 hours 30 mins
- Thriller / Horror - 7 hours 50 mins
Of course, if you really want to get top quality sleep, Sleep Junkie recommends no electronics two hours before bedtime is best.
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But if you can't resist a bit of pre-bed screen time then it looks like you need to be swapping Bridget Jones for Psycho.
Featured Image Credit: New Line Cinema/ Universal