Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Meaning, Signs, and How to Stop it
Heard of revenge travel and revenge spending? Have you ever heard of "Revenge Bedtime Procrastination"?
When you finish your work, take a shower and clean yourself up, you find it's already 11:00 or 12:00. You lie in bed and don't want to go to bed so early. You think: slip on your phone for a while longer or read a novel to console yourself for the hard day! Finally, you did not go to bed until three or four am.
You wake up the next day and drag your tired body to work and school as usual, and this cycle starts to make you tired day after day. Do you want to get out of the vicious cycle of "Revenge Bedtime Procrastination"?
Table of Content:
Revenge Bedtime Procrastination: What Is It?
Do revenge bedtime procrastination at bedtime actually exist?
How Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Affects Your Health
How Does Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Work?
Signs of Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
What Types of People Are Most Affected by Bedtime Procrastination?
How to Get to Bed on Time: Strategies to Revenge Beat Bedtime Procrastination
Revenge Bedtime Procrastination: What Is It?
The concept of revenge bedtime procrastination refers to the effect of procrastinating going to bed for the purpose of engaging in activities that people simply do not have the time for throughout the day.
This is a way of finding the time to relax and enjoy yourself -- at the expense of sleep.
It is first thought that bedtime procrastination originated as a term described in a 2014 paper, in which the word 'revenge' was used to describe the way that people who work 12-hour days often stay up in an attempt to regain some control over their lives.
A viral tweet from journalist Daphne K. Lee introduced the term to the world, and according to her, it is something that occurs when people who do not have much control over their daytime life refuse to sleep early at night in order to regain a sense of freedom during the late hours of the night.
Do revenge bedtime procrastination at bedtime actually exist?
A diagnosis of revenge bedtime procrastination isn't available on its own, but Drerup says she has encountered many patients who have been dealing with it, and it is becoming more prevalent as time goes on. In 2014, researchers published an article in Frontiers in Psychology that defined bedtime procrastination as "failing to go to bed at the intended time, when there are no external circumstances that prevent a person from doing so." This was the first time researchers had defined the term.
A word called "revenge" was frequently used in discussions as a reference to the 12-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week work schedule faced by many workers in China, as well as how they were taking control over the time they have on their hands by staying up late. In 2020, it took off when journalist Daphne K. Lee took the idea viral. Lee has gone on to mention the phenomenon in a social media post, where she describes it as "a phenomenon in which people who do not have much control over their daytime life refuse to go to bed earlier than they normally should in order to regain some sense of freedom during late hours." As of today, the post has been liked by more than 263,000 people.
There's more to revenge bedtime procrastination than just staying up late, or attempting to get some sleep but not being able to do so. A person who is aware that their actions will delay sleep and will result in negative effects does it anyway. As a result, people are deprived of an adequate amount of sleep each night, which is also a result of this situation.
Read the Sleep and find a better way to sleep.
How Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Affects Your Health
Sleep deprivation occurs when you do not get enough shut-eye each night, which is when you are not getting enough shut-eye. You should get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep at night, while children and teenagers need a bit more sleep.
A lack of sleep can affect everything from your relationships to your job to your ability to drive safely. Aside from feeling tired and irritable, you may also experience symptoms such as the following:
l Thinking at a slower pace
l A lack of attention
l The worst memory you have
l Making faulty decisions
l Feeling irritable stressed, and anxious
Long-term sleep deprivation increases your risk for health problems such as:
l A heart condition
l The disease of diabetes
l The obesity epidemic
l Insufficiency of immunity
l Problems relating to hormones
l Pain that persists
l Conditions such as depression and anxiety related to mental health
Sleep deprivation, combined with long-term sleep deficiency, is also associated with a higher risk of premature death.
How Does Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Work?
There is ongoing debate regarding the psychology behind sleep procrastination. Sleep procrastination is still an emerging concept in sleep science.
The intention-behavior gap describes individuals who procrastinate getting enough sleep but do not do so.
We are already at our lowest level of self-control at the end of each day, which may facilitate sleep procrastination. A failure in self-regulation or self-control may explain why this gap exists. Some people may be naturally inclined to procrastinate, including before bedtime. A person's ability to maintain self-control in the evening may also be limited by demands at work or school during the day.
People are divided over this explanation, with some arguing that it places too much emphasis on self-control. The procrastination of sleep may actually be caused by people whose chronotype is evening — "night owls" — who are forced to adapt to early bird schedules. When revenge bedtime procrastination occurs, the sacrifice of sleep for leisure may also be interpreted as a way to recover from stress rather than as a failure of self-control.
It is important to conduct more research to better understand sleep procrastination, which may be caused by a number of interacting factors, such as chronotype, daytime stress, and difficulties in self-management.
Signs of Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
There are three key characteristics of sleep procrastination that researchers suggest are associated with staying up late:
l A person's overall sleep time per night must be decreased as a result of the delay in going to sleep.
l Neither illness nor an environmental source is causing this delay in going to sleep.
l In spite of the fact that they know it may result in negative consequences, people choose to engage in the behavior.
There are different ways in which people can be affected by this, depending on their situation and the reason why they feel the need to stay up late. In the case of parents of young children, those hours after they have put their children to bed might be the only time they have to focus on what they need to do. If you have a hectic work schedule, you might have to resort to binge-watching TV shows on the couch to get some unstructured relaxation.
During the late night and early morning hours, some individuals may be able to catch up on hobbies or engage in activities that require more energy. However, the majority of people tend to use these hours to do things that make little effort on their part.
As a result of putting off sleeping for a few more hours, some people enjoy doing easy things such as shopping on the Internet, scrolling through social media posts, reading, and watching streaming services.
What Types of People Are Most Affected by Bedtime Procrastination?
There is still a lot of research to be done regarding sleep procrastination. Experts aren't exactly sure who is most prone to this problem due to the fact that the research is so new.
It is important to note, however, that a study has shown that students and women are most likely to procrastinate before bedtime. People who have an evening chronotype are more likely to procrastinate before bedtime, which may manifest itself in bedtime procrastination. In addition to procrastinating in other areas of life, sleep procrastination also appears to be more common in people who procrastinate at home.
For some people, sleep procrastination could be due to a combination of personal stress coupled with a lack of enough leisure time to relax or entertain themselves. For many people, sleep procrastination may be the result of extended work hours combined with a full night's sleep that leaves very little time for relaxation or entertainment.
Because of COVID-19 and the stress associated with stay-at-home orders, it is also likely that revenge bedtime procrastination is on the rise. It has been found that working from home has usually led to longer working hours, and in particular, that women's leisure time has been reduced since the outbreak of the pandemic. Many people have reported experiencing sleeping problems during the pandemic due to these factors, which may have triggered stress and sleep procrastination.
How to Get to Bed on Time: Strategies to Revenge Beat Bedtime Procrastination
Spend less time in the daytime best way to prevent revenge on bedtime procrastination is to plan satisfying, tiring activities during the day.
Putting yourself first throughout the day will make you feel less deprived at night. We readily give too much of our energy to others.
1. Maintain a healthy sleep routine
It is important to follow a regular bedtime routine, even when you are on weekends. If you want to break out of the old bedtime routine, you might want to try setting an alarm, writing in a journal and practicing breathwork and mindfulness activities to break out of it. The more you streamline your preparation for bedtime, the more likely you will be to decrease your resistance to bedtime.
In order for you to get a good night's sleep, avoid exposure to bright blue light from electronic devices at least an hour before bedtime. Bright blue light from electronic devices has the same effect as exposure to sunlight.
You should avoid taking naps during the day, particularly if you are having difficulty falling asleep at night.13 Adenosine, a chemical linked to sleepiness, accumulates when you are awake and decreases when you are sleeping.14 Thus, taking naps could deplete your supply of the chemical you need for a good night's rest.
2. Keep a circadian rhythm
In order to fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and how we feel when we wake up in the morning, the things we do, while we are awake, have an impact on how quickly we fall asleep, whether we are able to stay asleep longer, and how we feel when we wake up the following morning. As a result of our circadian rhythm, which controls our daily schedules and regulates sleep, ADHD has a correlation with a delayed circadian rhythm.
A circadian rhythm is regulated by light and darkness. Sunlight awakens the body. Darkness induces the body to sleep. (Therefore, it is recommended to avoid screens at night if you want to sleep well.)
Your sleep-wake cycle will be influenced by natural cues from the sun and the sunset as early morning sunlight or sunsets play a prominent role in your daily routine.
3. Work out
There are several benefits to exercising, including improved sleep quality and overall health, as well as a reduction in the functioning of the circadian clock. So why not knock two birds with one stone by exercising in the early morning sunlight?
4. Enjoy a moment of relaxation
You can use a journal as a means of releasing stress and calming your mind. Think of it as a "brain download." Expressive writing has been proven to improve sleep and reduce stress.
5. Medication for ADHD should be considered (or adjusted)
If you suffer from insomnia, speak with your doctor. Stimulants may help you sleep better if you have ADHD. You need to consult your doctor about adjusting the dose or even switching to another medication, since medications may also cause sleep difficulties. If you experience sleep problems after taking a new medication, then talk to your doctor about adjusting the dose or switching to another medication.
6. Making Sleep Better: Changing Habits
For overcoming a revenge bedtime procrastination cycle, good sleep habits are essential. To make better sleep habits a reality, follow these steps:
l Define your vision. To increase follow-through, modify a small microhabitat instead of overhauling your sleep schedule at once.
l Keep your intention in mind. Ask yourself, "What is it that motivates me to get to bed at a certain time?" Or, "What motivates me to stop procrastinating my bedtime as a revenge act?"
l Change the micro-habit in a consistent and purposeful way on a daily basis, with effort.
Choosing a word that encapsulates your intention, or a word that embodies the reward that will come from better sleep - joy, energy, calm, peace - and repeating this word aloud to yourself as you prepare for bed will help you to focus on the word.
You can turn your bedtime plan into a game or make your bedtime plan as a game by setting a time for you to go home before midnight (a la Cinderella racing home to bed before the timer goes off). If you are inspired by humor, make your bedtime routine more humorous.
Entrust yourself and your ability to implement change wholeheartedly. Understand that you will be at odds with your own old habits, as well as your own identity which is linked to them.
It is important that you celebrate once you have gone to bed. Focus on how happy and contented you feel when you have kept your intention - it will motivate you to do it all again the following day as well.
As long as you use a similar technique, you can help someone else stop procrastinating at bedtime in revenge. You should, however, be careful not to exacerbate the problem of revenge bedtime procrastination if you do this (e.g., forcing the procrastinator to go to bed at a certain time so that they feel that they don't have control over their behavior). Instead, focus on helping the procrastinator to develop intrinsic and autonomous motivation to go to bed on time by developing intrinsic and autonomous motivation, while ensuring they maintain control over their behavior, such as talking to them about this behavior and asking them what they think they could do to prevent this from happening in the future.
Additionally, it can be helpful to begin by finding out what causes you to procrastinate in the first place when attempting to reduce your procrastination, in both yourself and in other people, as well as to reduce your procrastination in the first place. In this way, you will be able to figure out what you will need to do in order to deal with procrastination, especially when you need to choose specific anti-procrastination methods in order to deal with it.