Revenge Bedtime Procrastination

Do you ever find yourself trying to make the most of the nighttime by staying up too late with thoughts of, “finally, I get a moment that’s just for me”?

There is a term called revenge bedtime procrastination which is “revenge” that you take out on the daytime for not allowing you to do the things that you wish you could have done during that time by sacrificing sleep at night to do them. Unfortunately, this can unintentionally turn into taking revenge on yourself when lack of sleep catches up to you.

Just because you might be a night owl doesn’t necessarily mean that you are enacting revenge bedtime procrastination. Researchers have found the following signs directly correspond with it:

• You keep delaying your sleep almost every day

• Because of this delay, your health begins to decline

• You start to believe that a minimum amount of time spent sleeping is enough for you

• The delay in sleep has no major reason (only for leisure activities)

• There is full awareness that this behavior is bad for you and yet you choose to do it

• The leisure activities are those which do not require much work

• It is either late in the night or very early in the morning (basically you sleep less)

Revenge bedtime procrastination can begin to take a toll on your overall physical and mental health. If this sounds familiar to you, ways that you might want to help assist yourself in making the switch to begin having sleep be a priority include:

• Recognizing the importance of sleep to your overall health

• Intentionally finding ways to balance work with leisure activities during the daytime

• Having a pre-bedtime routine to wind down

• Eating 3-4 hours before sleep

• Avoiding caffeine before bedtime

• Looking into blue light-blocking glasses and technology if you use screens

Have you heard of this term before? I’d love to hear from you if so.

Yours in wellness & healing,

Angela

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