LG TV study finds OLED displays better than LCD for a good night's sleep due to increase in melatonin

Researchers from the Kookmin University in Seoul have found that watching a TV with OLED display is better for the viewer's sleep patterns than gawking at an LCD one.

The clinical study employed 40 participants and split them in two groups who watched the same content on either an LCD, or an OLED TV before bed, and compared the results after two weeks.

It turned out that the production of melatonin needed for a good night's sleep not only didn't drop from watching TV, but actually increased by 8.1% in the OLED control group.

This is in line with the usual body processes when sleep time approaches, but the opposite was true for the LCD TV group. There, melatonin decreased by 2.7% in the span of two hours, indicating that watching a TV with an LCD screen is more disruptive for sleep.

The researchers pointed out inherent characteristics of the LCD and OLED display technologies as reasons for this discrepancy in melatonin secretion. The diodes in OLED displays emit light themselves, instead of relying on strong backlighting. As a result, the LCD screen's harmful blue light emissions that are proven to disturb sleep patterns, are double what OLED displays emit.

According to the study's lead researcher Prof. Kim Chang-wook, OLED TVs are also "effective in maintaining viewers’ healthy sleep patterns through greater activation of their parasympathetic nerves, which are responsible for feelings of comfort."

The study was commissioned by LG, which has been harping about the sleep-friendly television panels in newer models like the 65" LG Evo C4 OLED TV for a good while.

Last year, it even got its OLED TVs badged as "Circadian Friendly" by the independent TÜV Rheinland certification body, and it now has a clinical study to demonstrate the difference they make. Granted, the study can be slotted into the corporate-sponsored research category, with the respective grain of salt.

The "lowest level of blue light emissions among all existing TV panels and absence of screen flicker" have also earned LG OLED TVs a number of eye-safety awards from other certification bodies, though, so its OLED panel claims are not without merit.