How many times have you repeated this phrase in your head while watching your child run around the house because she stubbornly refuses to fall asleep at 9 p.m. and you are trying to establish her routine at 7 p.m. I used to think that only toddlers might resist going to bed because they have a lot to explore. Nevertheless, doing research about how to help my little one, I found that this situation is now beyond age barriers.
Have you heard about revenge bedtime procrastination or sleep procrastination? This is a new pattern where people “revenge” for their busy daytime schedule by fitting in leisure time at the expense of staying up late and refusing to go to sleep.
Medically, it is defined as the voluntary delay of going to bed, without any external circumstances causing the delay and is associated with inadequate sleep.
What are the main causes?
There are some theories why people prefer to replace sleep with “more free time,” and they were described in an article written by Starkman:
- It could be that you’re a night owl living in an early bird’s world. (Moderate positive association with evening chronotype)
- You’re eager to find relief from a very busy day or week.
- Perhaps do you tend to procrastinate in general? Do you put off doing important things, including sleep?.
- Meta-analysis revealed that bedtime procrastination had a moderately negative association with self-control, which is getting worse at the end of the day.
How is this affecting your health?
Bedtime procrastination is negatively associated with insufficient sleep duration, worse sleep quality, and positively associated with daytime fatigue. You might be putting yourself at risk for sleep deprivation, and with these a variety of health issues in the short-term and long-term.
Cognitive issues such as, slower thinking, less attention, memory problems, faulty decision making, stress, anxiety, and feeling irritated, worsening the ability to drive safely, and excessive fatigue and tiredness are some of the signs and symptoms.
In the long term, chronic pain, heart diseases, metabolic problems, diabetes, weight gain, immunosuppression, hormonal-related problems, and depression/anxiety could arise. Increasing in the same way the probability of early death from any reason.
References
- Vanessa M. Hill, Amanda L. Rebar, Sally A. Ferguson, Alexandra E. Shriane, Grace E. Vincent, Go to bed! A systematic review and meta-analysis of bedtime procrastination correlates and sleep outcomes, Sleep Medicine Reviews, Volume 66, 2022, 101697, ISSN 1087-0792, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2022.101697.
- What Is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination? Written by Evan Starkman. Medically Reviewed by Melinda Ratini, MS, DO on August 04, 2022. Published on https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/revenge-bedtime-procrastination
