And I don’t necessarily mean boring television here, although that can count, too. My wife and I have a running joke because of the show How It’s Made. Good show, great concept. I enjoy watching it, in theory anyway. But inevitably, within about 15 minutes of viewing it, my eyelids start getting very…very…heavy. It doesn’t matter if I’m watching the show in bed at night, or on my couch in the middle of the afternoon. It puts me to sleep. And of course, that means I never get to see the end of how the sausage funnel is formed. Damn!
My wife, on the other hand, almost always falls asleep whenever I put professional bowling on TV, but that one IS from boredom. What can I say – we have different taste in sports.
So is there TV out there that literally makes you fall asleep?
Dirty Jobs. Great show, and my wife has expressed an interest in Mike Rowe that I should probably keep an eye on, but neither of us has seen the end of many episodes.
It’s not as if I actually want to fall asleep when bowling is on. I want to stay awake enough to run away, but my body shuts down before I can escape.
There is nothing quite so delightful as dozing off to the dulcet tones of Vin Scully. Also, I’m with McNew’s wife: Mike Rowe is delectable even though Dirty Jobs does tend to make me sleepy.
The various very high-numbered channels on Dish Network; mostly academic networks with programming like “14th Annual Roundtable on Native American Feminist Poetry”, lectures on the legacy of French colonial rule in Chad, and the like.
The NASA Channel can also be a great sleeping aid, especially when they’re airing hour after hour of a nearly empty Mission Control room.
For mainstream television, live rock “performances” on PBS, most of which seem to feature Eric Clapton for some reason, tend to put me away.
Somehow I knew I wouldn’t be the first to mention How It’s Made but I didn’t think I’d get scooped by the OP (although the last time this sort of thread got going I was first in with it). Theoretically very interesting but I nod off in the middle of almost every episode. Slightly off-topic, I’ve never been able to stay awake all the way through David Lynch’s Eraserhead but I ascribe that to the hypnosis rays embedded in the videotape.
How It’s Made, Modern Marvels, any sports, depending on other circumstances, but Dirty Jobs doesn’t make me sleep unless it’s one I’ve seen 100 times before (and know Mike’s not going to take his shirt off. )
Chuck. I like it, really. But I cannot stay awake for a whole entire 10 minutes straight, forget abut an entire episode. Thank gosh for the dvr, and eb=ven with that it takes some serious committment to get through an episode - but I feel so well rested.
Hogan’s Heroes. I have a bunch of HH DVDs for the express purpose of falling asleep to. It reminds me of a Sunday afternoon at my grandparents’ house. Zzzzzz. I do like it, though.
Also, MSt3K episodes tend to make me fall asleep. I also like, nay, love them. But the 30th viewing of Puma Man is like Ambien to me. In a very wonderful way.
Lou Dobbs. I usually fall asleep to his show at night. He’s the biggest “La lal la la la la la” “forever on the same note” personality on television- if his production company did a remake of The Miracle Worker Helen’s first words would be “Waaaah wah send the illegals back to frigging Mexico and pardon all border guards who shoot them dead we dont’ want them here and Vicente Fox is the anti-Christ waah!”, which combined with his soft monotonous voice is the perfect audio sleeping tonic.
Blue Planet, Seas of Life does the trick for me. I actually like the show, but it’s so languid and peaceful, it drops me quicker than Valium in an IV drip.
ETA: The most fallen-asleep-to show (next to Letterman, Leno, et al) has to be Monday Night Football.
Hah! This is too funny! I have the exact same experience with this show. I want to watch it. I really do, and I really, really try, but damned if I don’t always fall asleep before they finish showing how they create a master for vinyl records. I even Tivo the show, but I just can’t make it to the end of an episode. My wife keeps asking “Didn’t you watch that one already?” It’s too embarrassing to admit that I’ve tried to watch the same episode five times already, but I really, really want to know how they make vinyl records…and link chain, yeah!
I have my TiVo set to keep a high number of old reruns of Star Trek TNG, DS9, and Voyager, as well as Stargate: SG-1 for the purpose of taking naps. I like these shows, but I’ve seen them all a million times, and so my brain “lets me” fall asleep rather than trying to stay awake to “find out what happens next” like it would for a new show. I only do this for napping on the couch, though. I wouldn’t go to sleep in bed with the TV on.
I can’t think of any specific shows that I try to watch but fall asleep anyway. It’s rather random.
My local PBS station used to run “Classic Arts Showcase” in the middle of the night, after the regular programming signed off. When I had a TV in my room, I used to fall asleep to this. I don’t know if they still have it, because nowadays I tend to pass out on my bed from sheer weariness long before PBS signs off.