The term “revenge bedtime procrastination” has been on the rise lately. It refers to when people who don’t have much control over their daytime refuse to sleep early to regain some sense of freedom during late-night hours.
But this attempt to gain control of our time comes with the loss of our wellbeing. Let’s explore.
How Did We Get Here?
As the pace of life accelerated, people in high-stress jobs with long working hours and parents who have little time to themselves during the day started feeling less in control of their lives. With most of the time devoted to others, the next best option seemed to reclaim the time spent sleeping, maybe because it seems like time lost anyway.
Chances are you have done it a few times as well. The problem is that for many people this delay of sleep grows from 10-15 minutes spent on phone games or chatting to staying awake till 2-3 AM binge-watching shows and browsing shopping sites mindlessly until they are out of their senses and fall asleep.
A Relationship Gone Sour
The problem lies in the way people try to reclaim control over their day. We see more and more people resorting to social media and binge-watching shows in their free time, but a bigger trap awaits them here.
Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO, has said in the past, “… we actually compete with sleep.” And you think companies would want you to sleep when their profits depend on its absence? No way! In fact, it is even worse for social media companies with ad revenue tied to the time spent by users. Ironically, if you have watched the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” you will realize how much psycho-behavioral tricks are put into getting you hooked to these platforms.
It only gets worse for around 20% global workforce in nightshifts, with people struggling not only against the traps of digital platforms but also the circadian rhythms. The problem is so grave that the WHO has declared nightshift as a probable carcinogen.
Choose Resolution, Not Revenge
In the desire to take control of their life, millions of innocent people are only hurting themselves by falling for digital platforms. Is it any different from someone slow poisoning themselves in the desire to get free?
How bad can lack of sleep be on a global scale? Sleep expert and neurologist Matt Walker puts it like this:
A global experiment is run twice a year on 1.6 billion people across 70 countries as daylight savings are put into effect. In this period, as people lose around 1 hour of sleep, we observe almost 24% higher rates of heart attacks, and similar trends show in car crashes, traffic accidents, and suicides.
If 1-hour reduction has such grave effects, think about the risk people are putting themselves into as they resort more towards revenge bedtime procrastination.
Remember, the path of revenge is the path of destruction. The list of harms just goes on, with lack of sleep leading to smaller testicles in men, type-2 diabetes, higher risk of cancer, repressed immunity, higher blood pressure, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease to name a few.
What we need is a solution, not revenge.
A Must, Not an Option
First, we need to stop thinking of time spent sleeping as the time lost. In fact, it is this time that makes us alive. It should not be treated as optional, or the relaxation one deserves only after an important task is completed. Sleep is fundamental to a good life. It is a must, not an option.
Whenever you find yourself struggling to find free time, reassess things. See what is keeping you from managing work. Many times, it’s a mix of things like:
Overcommitting,
Failing to delegate tasks,
Sitting in unnecessary meetings,
Opting for too many courses, or
Long breaks with team and friends.
Use your powers of time blocking and essentialism that you acquired earlier. Talk to your team, teachers, or partner to solve the problem. Do not make your life a punishment.
Breathe. Go slow 🌿