It turns out that spending too much time in front of the telly could be harming our brains, as it has been found that people who watch television for over four hours each day face a much higher chance of developing cognitive problems.
The research, published in PLOS ONE, looked at more than 1.2 million adults and older adults across 35 different studies. What they discovered is pretty worrying.
The findings showed that the more people watched, the worse it got for their brain function, with the danger becoming particularly clear once viewing time goes beyond that four-hour mark.
When researchers dug deeper into the numbers, they found something even more concerning. People who watched an average of six hours of television every day showed noticeably lower scores on cognitive tests.
Extended television watching means more sedentary behaviour
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The research team carefully analysed 28 of the studies to understand exactly how viewing time affects brain function. They used what's called a dose-response analysis - basically looking at how different amounts of telly watching impact cognitive abilities.
The quality checks on the research showed moderate certainty for the cognitive impairment findings, though the cognitive score results had lower certainty levels. Still, the pattern was clear across the massive participant pool.
Here's what makes these findings particularly alarming: adults typically spend around seven hours a day watching television. That's way above the danger zone identified in the research.
The study also found connections to serious conditions like dementia, which affects 55 million people worldwide and is expected to reach 139 million by 2050.
Alzheimer's disease, the most common type of dementia, came up in the research. One study in the analysis showed that longer television viewing times were linked to higher Alzheimer's risk, though researchers say this needs more investigation.
With dementia being the seventh leading cause of death globally, these findings highlight a real public health worry.
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The study can't prove that television directly causes cognitive decline
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The research points to several ways that excessive TV watching might harm our brains. Evidence suggests that prolonged viewing is linked to smaller brain volumes in areas that handle language, memory and communication - the same regions typically affected by dementia.
There's also the problem of sitting still for hours. Extended television watching means more sedentary behaviour, which is already known to increase the risk of cognitive impairment.
The research connects prolonged viewing to higher chances of obesity and diabetes, plus negative mental health effects like loneliness and depression.
However, the researchers stress that these were observational studies, so they can't prove that television directly causes cognitive decline. More research is needed to establish whether cutting back on viewing time would actually protect brain function.
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