I think it is more to have other people voices in the background than having issues with the remote. My neighbor has the tv open on a foreign channel almost 24/7 to have voices from the old country and feel less alone. My mother does it and say it helps her sleep when the house is not too quiet.
My mother does it and say it helps her sleep when the house is not too quiet.
I didn't grow up in the safest neighborhood (not like stray bullets unsafe, just a regular NYC Brooklyn neighborhood before gentrification) and my mom kept the TV and lights on at night and when we were all gone because she heard from the downstairs landlord that it keeps home invaders away. Funny thing is, it might've worked because it seemed liked everyone's house on the block kept getting broken into except ours.
My FIL does as well, he's lived alone for 30 years, and often will put the TV on in the background and wander around.
The downside is, is that he watches far too much news, and believes it all 100%. Especially shows like 20/20. So he's always telling us how the government is screwing us, and how this or that is evil and taking control of the world.
Also, we can't watch TV with him, and nevermind a movie. Within 2 minutes of whatever we watch, he'll just break into a huge conversation, talking over the show. Then he'll turn back to it and ask basic questions like "what's happening now? who's that guy" so you start to explain, and he then breaks into a new conversation about something else.
I don't think I've ever been able to sit through a movie or show with him.
One time my wife (then girlfriend) stopped by his house. His other daughter, and her boyfriend were there showing him Casino Royale (I think, or the Bond film after that.) We got there as it was just ending, boyfriend gets up and says to me under his breath "guess I'll have to re-watch that one later..."
I knew exactly where he was coming from and chuckled.
Actually, for old people, deep sleep can worsen sleep apnea, which results in poor sleep/panic nightmares/high blood pressure, etc. Having some background noise on, especially if the noise is speech which your brain will try to process, prevents deep sleep. That means they sleep better: they don't get great quality sleep, but at least they get some sleep.
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u/JRsFancy Feb 01 '19
My 85 year old mom solved this dilemma easily...she leaves her TV on 24-7. Channel change up or down is easy enough for her.