Perhaps not as much a bad design as an "Who Needs It" sort of thing:

Netflix hacks up a sleep detector to pause while you snooze

Fitbit integration would keep you from having to rewind.

By Jared Newman | Tech Hive US | 28 February 14

Falling asleep to a movie on Netflix is a wonderful feeling, but one that can turn to frustration the next day as you try to figure out where you left off.

It's one problem that Netflix engineers tried to solve during an internal company Hack Day last week, according to TechCrunch. The hack involves using a Fitbit wristband to detect when the user has fallen asleep. When snoozing commences, Netflix slowly fades the audio and puts the movie on pause. It also creates a bookmark at the point when sleep began so snoozing users can easily return to that point later.

Fitbit only detects sleep by measuring movements after the user has turned on "sleep mode," so the feature might not be ideal for mid-day naps. It could be useful, however, if you were planning on dozing off for the night in front of the television.

*****

Why would you start a movie if you don't intend to watch the movie? It appears that you have to tell the app that you intend to go to sleep in order for it to work.

Of course I do often find "her" reading her Nook book with her eyes closed, but I don't think it turns the pages until she wakes up and tells it to, so maybe it's a "cultural difference" sort of thing.

John