Revenge Sleep Procrastination
Written by Ashley Taylor, M.S.W, LMSW
Licensed Master Social Worker
You’ve had an early morning and a long day at work, while the thoughts about how early you’re going to bed tonight start to circle through your mind. At this point, you really wish you could bring back those days in Kindergarten where the middle of your day consisted of a nap. Those really were the days weren’t they?
By the time you sit through traffic and get done eating dinner, it's 7 or 8 pm, and you sit there knowing that in order to feel fully rested for tomorrow's workday and to avoid that desire for the middle of the day nap, you really need to get to bed by 9 pm. 9 pm passes, then 10, and now it’s 11 and you’re thinking to yourself, why do I do this to myself knowing the consequences that tomorrow will bring?!
I can say that I have found myself in this predicament more than I would like to admit. And believe it or not, there is a term for this phenomenon: revenge sleep procrastination. Procrastination is something most of us are familiar with, as we put off tasks until the last minute that we know we need to take care of, and most likely have the time to take care of at an earlier time but choose not to. It’s the idea of associating revenge with procrastination that most of us might not be familiar with.
The idea behind the use of the word revenge in this context is that we feel this internal need to essentially “get back at the day” for robbing us of any freedom to make our own decisions and instead of working on someone else's clock. Because of this, we use the nighttime hours to gain back that control that most of us feel like we have lost over the course of the day. So instead of procrastinating on a project or an assignment, we are procrastinating sleep, even though we are fully aware of the negative outcomes that the next day will bring.
Revenge sleep procrastination can take two separate forms. The first is delaying the bedtime process as a whole, so engaging in activities out of bed like enjoying a hobby late at night or maybe staying up to hang out with your significant other. The other form of procrastination is the in-bed-procrastination, where you are in bed but delaying actually going to sleep, which has been on the increase because of the use of electronic devices in bed and the commonality of TV’s in the bedroom.
Engaging in revenge sleep procrastination is an odd dynamic when you really break it down because what ends up happening is that since we did not get enough sleep the night before, we end up working less efficiently at work, which then causes us to have to work more hours which then leads to… you got it: less freedom and less time off.
Work is not always the most desirable place or activity that we have in our lives when we think about all the possibilities that our free time brings us. And this is also not to say that most people don’t love their jobs! Because I am sure there is a large population of people that do. But just because you love something does not mean that you will never feel like you need a break, or some well-deserved me-time, especially when you factor in the stress levels of different lines of work coupled with the shift many workplaces have experienced due to the pandemic.
But, the moral of this story is that regardless of how revengeful those extra hours at night time feel when we are making that choice, we end up placing ourselves in the middle of a cycle that can seem never ending. Here are some tips if you feel like any part of this blog applies to you:
Try to avoid activities in your bed besides sleeping. I know that is difficult for some people based on the set up of their living situation, but there is research that shows when we do other things in our beds like work or read emails, our brain has a hard time associating that space with sleep
Shut off your TV when laying in bed. Seems small, but our brains take longer to fully shut down when we have noise in the background that isn’t calming music or white noise
Put down your phone in bed. Just put your phone on the charger, set your alarm and walk away. There’s nothing that can’t wait until the morning!
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