Alex and his roommates pitched in and bought a 60in flat screen television for their living room to replace the older, much smaller version. Football season was approaching, and their house has become a popular place for friends to convene due to its proximity to entertainment on campus. They noticed their living room became increasingly crowded towards the end of basketball season and planned to save for a new set. Additionally, the smaller screen of their previous television made it difficult to host Xbox tournaments.

Being that the original television was a hand-me-down from Alex’s parents, he put it on the dresser in his bedroom to make room for the new flat screen. Football season kicked off with an away game, so his roommates hosted a watch party to cheer the team on to victory. The party was a success and he and his roommates began to plan for an Xbox tournament in the near future.

Alex, a member of the wrestling team, has always excelled in both sports and academics. He has not chosen a major yet, but has continued to make the Dean’s List while finishing his required course work. Despite taking a full schedule load of general coursework, Alex has been able to stay engaged in his learning and sits in the front row of each class….a team rule decreed by Coach Johnson. This week however, he has found himself dozing off and in one such event, it was brought to his attention by his Psychology professor. His roommate Chris, also on the wrestling team, has mentioned how close they have been coming to being late for morning workouts due to Alex’s desire to stay in bed.

Thursday after class Alex went home like he would any other day. He finished most of his schoolwork before grabbing dinner with his roommates. When he got back to his room, he flipped on his television set and listened as he finished the remainder of his English composition homework. After showering and getting into bed, he now realized that he has added watching an hour or two of TV to his daily schedule. Beyond sporting events or the occasional hour of Xbox, Alex has little time to devote to TV programming. Furthermore, he has never had a TV in his room before. He begins to wonder if this is the source of his daily sleepiness.

The following day he makes a conscientious effort not to turn the TV on after class. He refrained from watching all day, though he gave much of the credit to the project due the following day. The next morning, he and Chris sprinted across campus and entered the weight room just before the door was closed. Coach Johnson thanked them for “taking the time to join them”. This close call was the final straw. Coach Johnson has been a great mentor for Chris, but is not a person whose bad side he planned to be on. After class, he removed the power cord from the TV and placed it in a drawer. After his shower, he crawled in to bed with the desire to watch “just one show” but he was tired and the thought of getting up to retrieve the cord and plug in the TV was more than enough to help him quickly forget about it. By the following week, he was the one waking Chris up, as was custom.

This is another great example of the benefit of limiting screen time in bed, as well as tricks to accomplish this feat.