But one comment from this year’s Q1 earnings call drew plenty of attention and deserves revisiting as we close out the year: CEO Reed Hastings’ claim that sleep itself is their main competitor. Just what is the relationship between one’s sleep and one’s Netflix viewing habits? Does Netflix hurt your sleep? The good folks at Amerisleep recently surveyed over 1,300 people to bring TechCo an exclusive report detailing the answer.
More Netflix, Less Sleep
The study found a correlation between those who overwatch on the streaming service and those who went to sleep later than the wanted. The worst reason why viewers couldn’t stop to catch the requisite number of Zs? The “addictive nature of their favorite shows,” according to 46 percent of respondents. Take a look through the study’s accompanying infographic below for the rest of the reasons. It appears Hastings’ claim is validated by the data, given the hints it drops at the ways in which Netflix is winning its battle on its customers’ healthy sleep habits. If you can’t summon the energy to stop that autoplaying episode feature, you’ll see Netflix hurt your sleep every time. Perhaps a better question might be whether another episode of your favorite show is worth losing that precious sleep over. That said, I definitely should have skipped that second episode of Dark I watched last night, so I’m not about to cast the first stone here.
