Casey Recommends: Bedtime TV (and Movies)

As someone with Night Anxiety, I have used my iPad as a bedtime crutch for years.

(I know, screens and blue light in the bedroom are terrible, I’m doing damage to my sleep cycles, etc. To which I answer: if I can’t sleep at all, how much more damage can I do?)

To be fair, this started in college, when I would play my VHS tapes of favorite movies like That Thing You Do, Austin Powers, Billy Madison, and Empire Records over and over to block out the ambient noise from my dorm neighbors.

But now that we have streaming, I have a much bigger of library to work with. And I’ve refined the types of entertainment I need to watch in bed at specific times to keep my brain occupied in specific ways.

I was talking about this with my friend Elisa the other day as we volleyed show recommendations back and forth over cherry pie.

She agrees with me wholeheartedly that there are different categories for different moments throughout the night. And this inspired me to really define what these are. 

Herewith:

Evening Couch Entertainment (7-9 pm):

Usually, I can watch anything. Cerebral movies or shows that require brainpower, stuff with loud noises and explosions, stuff I’ve never seen before so I need to pay attention to what’s happening next, highly anticipated “treat shows” like Queer Eye (more on “treat shows” in another installment) — it’s all welcome.

Winding Down to Sleep (9:30-10:30 pm): 

We start to ease into stuff that won’t tax the noggin. I can still watch new, as-yet-unseen movies and shows as long as they don’t ask too much of me — e.g., reality competitions like Next in Fashion or feel-good shows like We’re Here or Jury Duty (Heather and Jessica are right, James Marsden truly is a national treasure).

But this is where a good rewatch starts to put my brain in the sweet spot of familiarity. Currently, I’m rewatching Felicity for the first time since it aired on network TV, and it’s really paying off. 

I remember all the characters and most plot points, but there’s enough “newness” to it to keep my brain occupied until my eyelids start to close of their own accord.

(Important point: Streaming is basically built for the moment you realize you accidentally slept through an entire episode. Just start over again!)

Middle-of-the-Night Scary Busters (anywhere from 1:45-4 am): 

Now we go deep into the Rewatch Vault: any favorite movie or old TV show is ideal.

At this point in the night, I don’t want to watch anything I haven’t seen before because I don’t want to be paying full attention to it. 

The goal is to lull the brain back into dreamland as quickly and gently as possible, so it needs something it can latch onto while I watch with my eyes closed.

Yes, this is one of my favorite strategies: listening to the show like a podcast, because I know it by heart anyway. In fact, a New York Times editor recently wrote about how she would stick her phone under her pillow to listen to Seinfeld during the pandemic.

Disney movies (come on, you know Frozen and Moana intimately, don’t lie) or all those movies you watched in college, sitcoms, anything you could easily quote to me right now. That’s the stuff.

The only annoyance is that Parks and Recreation (my current rewatch) is now only available on Peacock, and those interstitial commercials are so loud. Come on, don’t you know why we’re all watching??

Is this something you do too? What are some of your favorite bedtime shows and movies?

Comment below and tell me all about them - I'd love to know.