Many of us may have found ourselves up until 3 or 4 am, especially during the February break, doing nothing other than scrolling through TikTok or watching “one more episode” of a Netflix series. This phenomenon, believe it or not, has a name: “Revenge Bedtime Procrastination.”
According to the Sleep Foundation, “‘Revenge bedtime procrastination’ describes the decision to sacrifice sleep for leisure time that is driven by a daily schedule lacking in free time.” In other words, like how other forms of procrastination tend to end up in the individual pursuing a hobby or other leisure activity, revenge bedtime procrastination is the same.
The only difference is that in this case, it occurs past bedtime and has effects on not only our productivity, but our health as well. The National Institutes of Health states, “Sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression.” This is because when we sleep, our breathing, heart rate, and heart pressure remains relatively stable, which is related to our cardiovascular health. According to NIH News in Health, “Your body releases hormones during sleep that help repair cells and control the body’s use of energy.” Because this is linked to metabolism, hormonal changes as a result of lack of sleep may lead to issues with body weight.
It should be no surprise that the amount of sleep we get correlates with our ability to focus and learn (recall teachers’ reminders to sleep well during finals week). Lack of sleep has a high chance of causing lower alertness and concentration, while simultaneously hindering our ability to remember things we had just learned. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, “Without sleep you can’t form or maintain the pathways in your brain that let you learn and create new memories, and it’s harder to concentrate and respond quickly. Sleep is important to a number of brain functions, including how nerve cells (neurons) communicate with each other.”
A study by PubMed illustrates that women and students are more prone to fall victim to sleep procrastination. Overall, the large majority of people who push off their bedtime tend to be those with a tight schedule that leaves them little time to relax and perform leisure activities. Another interesting discovery, shared by Sleep Foundation, was that “sleep procrastination also appears to be more frequent in people who procrastinate in other aspects of their life.”
Here, a question arises: what’s the difference between a night owl and a sleep procrastinator? The key difference between the two is that night owls prefer to be more active and productive at night as opposed to the day, while sleep procrastinators are not productive before they finally go to bed. “Plenty of night owls are actually just going to bed too late,” Business Insider shares. “Sleep procrastinators are usually distracted by their phones or computers, but they’re not creating the same high-quality work that true night owls make at night.” In other words, if you are staying up late but not doing any work, you are not considered a night owl, but rather a sleep procrastinator.
As it turns out, there is a psychological term for people who push back their bedtime in order to wind down after a long day. Although sleep procrastination provides extra time for leisure, it also poses health concerns due to the resulting sleep deficiency.
