Is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Lurking Under Your Covers?
See if this sounds familiar…You’re sitting on your favorite chair on a work night, or maybe you’re lying on the couch. It’s late. You really should be going to bed and you know it. But for some reason you just can’t stop yourself from wanting to watch that next episode in the series you’ve gotten hooked on. Or perhaps you find yourself rereading page 32 of Chapter 2 in your favorite book because you’ve fallen asleep several times by the 3rd sentence.
The battle has begun.
Stay awake. Get some sleep. Stay awake…get some sleep! Stay awake! GET SOME SLEEP!
In your mind, you’re saying, “I’ve been so busy all day. I didn’t have any time for myself and I’m gonna take it NOW!” Even though you’re exhausted because you’ve been so busy all day long being productive, running from one thing to another, etc, you decide to steal some time for yourself from time that you should be sleeping. Researchers describe this practice as revenge bedtime procrastination. You are skimping on sleep because you are trying to enact revenge on this really busy day that you had that didn’t give you any time for yourself.
The concept of “retaliatory staying up late” came from China. People who were working 996 (from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week), found little time to do much else other than come home after work, eat something and then get to bed, all to be ready to start the long work cycle again in the morning. They began to sacrifice sleep time for a little bit of personal time. But, it was when Daphne K. Lee tweeted about this concept in July of 2020, that revenge bedtime procrastination became a popular concept.
Studies have found that the three largest groups of people revenge bedtime procrastination occurs in, are those with high stress jobs, shift workers and parents.
If you find that you are one of those who makes a habit out of sacrificing your sleep on the idea of, “What’s a little sleep loss going to hurt?’, the answer, according to an article in Healthline is, “a lot”. The consistent lack of sleep can greatly affect 10 areas of the body. Those areas include:
So then, what’s the solution?
The answer is that there is no one simple solution. However, here are 3 suggestions to help you get to a better place, and hopefully a few more Zzzz’s:
Set consistent sleep patterns.
This is focusing on what time you get up, what time you go to bed and knowing the amount of sleep you are going to need to be at your best the next day. Setting those habits and routines will help you eliminate those opportunities where you don’t get those times for yourself in the evening.
Set better boundaries with your work.
If you are one of those people who like to do some work in the evening, try to refrain from working up until you go to bed. You know what happens. You work, you get in bed and you reflect on how you didn’t get any time for yourself. Before you know it, the revenge starts swelling up inside of you again.
Find that personal wellness, or “me time” earlier in the day.
Many times we plan to work hard all day to earn the right to have time for ourselves in the evening. But all too often something happens with your children, or your spouse or your significant other and you don’t get that time you planned on having in the evening and then that revenge shows up again. Even if it’s first thing in the morning, think about some things you could do at the end of the day you could look back on regardless of how busy your work day has been and think, “Yeah, I enjoyed doing that.” Whether it’s in the beginning of the day, middle of the day, afternoon or early in the evening, do whatever you have to so that when it’s time to go to bed, you’re ready to go to sleep.
And an added bonus, if you find you cannot break free from revenge bedtime procrastination and you are exhausted during the day, if you can, take a nap! According to an article from Sleep foundation, “…the ideal nap lasts 10 to 20 minutes. Studies have also shown the best time to take a nap is in the early to mid-afternoon when most people experience a natural decline in energy and alertness.” As well, there are 3 different types of naps.
A planned nap, as its name suggests, is premeditated. If you know that you’ll have to stay up longer than usual, you can take advantage of this type of afternoon nap. An emergency nap involves napping when you have difficulties keeping your eyes open because you’re exhausted. Finally, a habitual nap is again pretty self-explanatory — some people like to take a nap every day at the same time.
Which napper are you? Hopefully you will find time to make a few changes in your busy schedule to get the rest you need to be your best!
