What is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination?

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You’ve been there before—it’s been a hectic day filled with deadlines, running errands, or caring for your family. Before you know it, it’s time to turn in, but you haven’t taken a single moment for yourself.

So, you tell yourself that you’ll watch just one more social media reel, read one more chapter or play one more round of your favorite mobile game. Suddenly, it’s way past your bedtime, but you convince yourself that you just needed to de-stress. While the extra screen time may feel rewarding in the moment, it’s more likely that your bedtime routine is taking a toll on your sleep—hence the term “revenge bedtime procrastination.”

The phrase is a translation of an expression coined in China in 2014. After working 12-hour work days, many people realized they were taking “revenge” on days when they had little to no free time. Researchers explained that people stayed up late, generally using a device, to try to gain some semblance of leisure time, even if they knew it was at the expense of their sleep.

The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health reports that three factors determine revenge bedtime procrastination:

Delaying sleep so that it reduces your total sleep time.
Delaying your bedtime even though you know it can lead to negative consequences.
Staying up longer than intended, but not due to an external event or illness.

Who’s At Risk?

The short answer is that anyone can be at risk for revenge bedtime procrastination, but one study indicates that women were most likely to be bedtime procrastinators. This aligns with other studies that report women have had a disproportionate reduction in leisure time since the pandemic started.

While it’s good to make time to decompress, avoid burnout and mentally distance ourselves from work, long-term sleep deprivation is harmful to your health.

A 2019 sleep survey found that 62% of adults worldwide felt they don’t sleep enough and only clocked about 6.8 hours of snoozing per weeknight. Sleep deprivation like that can increase our risk for cardiovascular problems, diabetes, mood disorders, Alzheimer’s, weight gain and hypertension. It can also weaken our immune systems and make it difficult to concentrate.

What Do We Do About It?

Don’t quit cold turkey.
If you need time to unwind, put limits on your activities. For example, watch one episode of a show instead of finishing a season. Quit after two rounds of your favorite game. Stop reading at the end of the chapter.

Save something for tomorrow.
If it’s after dinnertime and you still have a dozen to-do items, why are you staying up late to tackle the whole list? Pick one or two, if you must, but take some time to relax before crawling into bed.

Try to establish a routine.
Several studies show that going to bed and waking up at the same time every day—even on weekends—is beneficial to sleep. Some studies suggest that people who do this have lower caffeine dependence.