Revenge Bedtime Procrastination

Revenge bedtime procrastination (BP)¹ is defined as going to bed later than intended despite the absence of external reasons. It can be described as the decision to sacrifice sleep to stay up late and engage in free time activities in spite of the risk of being overly tired in the morning.

Procrastination is nothing new. For generations, human beings have put off starting or completing tasks, whether it is schoolwork, cleaning, paying bills or working out. BP is a newer phenomenon and appears to be on the rise, being seen as a way of getting “revenge” on daytime hours with little or no free time. The English term “revenge bedtime procrastination” emerged as a translation of an expression in Chinese reflecting frustration tied to long, stressful work hours that left little time for personal enjoyment. Social media has allowed the idea to spread globally and has finally given a name to a practice that many were already engaging in.

Those working in sleep medicine should be aware of BP as it affects many patients — and the nature of working long and stressful night shifts means many sleep-care professionals regularly engage in BP themselves.

Possible Causes of Bedtime Procrastination

Why is revenge BP increasing? It can be partially accredited to the overscheduled lifestyles many people lead. Working hard all day, trekking children to various activities and participating in regularly scheduled social activities leads to a loss of feeling in control. Often, someone’s day is controlled more by work or school schedules, meetings and appointments rather than the person themself. This leads individuals to attempt to regain some personal time by making the decision to delay sleep to engage in unstructured activities such as reading, surfing the internet and social media, watching television or even just chatting with others in the household who are still awake.

BP is still an emerging concept in sleep science and there are debates going on about the psychology behind it. One explanation² is a failure in self-regulation or self-control. By the end of a busy and overscheduled day, the capacity for self control is already at a lower point — which may facilitate sleep procrastination. However, not everyone agrees with this explanation; some argue it places too much emphasis on self-control. Instead, sleep procrastination may result from people who have an evening chronotype (night owls) and are forced to try to adapt to schedules designed for the nine to five work schedule common in the United States. Sacrificing sleep for leisure time may also be seen as an attempt to find recovery time in response to stress rather than failure of self-control.

Revenge BP also appears to be tied to significant daytime stress. For many, sleep procrastination may be a response to extended work hours that, if combined with a full night’s sleep, leave virtually no time for entertainment or relaxation.³

Further research is needed to better understand BP, which most likely is the result of interacting factors. Naming the practice was an important step in moving forward with research and treatment for it.

People who engage in BP know they are doing it and generally want to receive enough sleep but fail to do so. This is known as an intention-behavior gap. Their intention may be to go to bed earlier, but subsequent behavior doesn’t reflect that.

Understanding Bedtime Procrastination Factors

Understanding BP can help sleep-care professionals realize when they are engaging in it. Clinical sleep educators should be knowledgeable about BP as many of their patients who are tired despite being treated for sleep disorders may be delaying their sleep. Knowing the symptoms, possible causes and consequences are vital to recognize when patients are delaying bedtimes. Three factors are required for a late sleep time to be considered BP:

1. A delay in going to sleep that reduces one’s total sleep time.
2. The absence of a valid reason for staying up later than intended, such as an external event or an underlying illness.
3. An awareness that delaying one’s bedtime could lead to negative consequences.

Forms

BP can also take different forms. The first involves delaying the act of getting into bed, which is what revenge BP is. Another is delaying the time of trying to fall asleep once in bed, a problem that has been associated with rising rates of electronic device use. A person may engage in one or both forms of procrastination, each of which can reduce nightly sleep. According to a study done in 2020,⁴ men have a higher occurrence of in-bed BP while another study⁵ showed that women have a higher rate of BP while not in bed. This study also showed that students had higher rates of BP than non-students.

Outcomes

Like other poor sleep hygiene practices, BP can result in poor outcomes, including the increased risk of accidents due to inattentiveness or falling asleep while driving or operating machinery and health risks like worsening hypertension, heart disease, respiratory illness, obesity and more. Without proper rest, the immune system may become compromised. Lack of exercise due to tiredness or fatigue leads to worsening of health issues and can be stressful.³

Revenge BP may also be on the rise because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased stress due to stay-at-home orders so not as many enjoyable activities could be participated in outside the home. Part of BP is trying to reclaim the time at night that was missed out during the day. While outside the home social activities have returned to normal, the BP engaged in during the pandemic hasn’t returned to normal. Working remotely has increased⁶ since the pandemic and projections show it will continue to increase which further reduces social interaction in the workplace or following work.⁷

How to Prevent Bedtime Procrastination

The initial remedy for BP is healthy sleep hygiene,^8-9 which involves creating good sleep habits and an environment conducive to sleep. Having set routines can help make behaviors feel almost automatic. For this reason, a nighttime routine can reduce the impulse to stay up later.

Improving sleep hygiene is unlikely to fully resolve BP, but cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and working with a clinical sleep educator (i.e., a sleep coach) on a regular basis may help. While research specifically for treating revenge BP is not available yet, CBT-I has been shown to be effective on the long-lasting effects of insomnia and some of the same tenets may apply to addressing BP.⁸

Revenge BP is on the rise and more research needs to be done to determine how best to treat it. People’s mental energy resources are depleted by the end of the day, making it challenging to engage in healthier behaviors. Citing good sleep hygiene practices to patients hasn’t been shown to be effective on its own — most patients know they are engaging in a poor bedtime practice. Understanding potential causes of BP and professional help may help change this harmful behavior.

References

1. Sun JC, Hyeyoun A, Sooyeon S. What do people do before going to bed? A study of bedtime procrastination using time use surveys. Sleep. April 2020;43(4). https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsz267
2. Cherry K. What Is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination? Verywell Mind. March 2023. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-revenge-bedtime-procrastination-5189591#citation-10
3. Suni E and Dimitriu A. What Is “Revenge Bedtime Procrastination”? 2 Nov 2023. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene/revenge-bedtime-procrastination
4. Magalhães P, Cruz V, Teixeira S, Fuentes S, Rosário P. An exploratory study on sleep procrastination: Bedtime vs. while-in-bed procrastination. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020;17(16):5892. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32823762/
5. Herzog-Krzywoszanska R and Krzywoszanski L. Bedtime procrastination, sleep-related behaviors, and demographic factors in an online survey on a Polish sample. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 2019;13:963. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31619947/
6. Robinson B. Remote Work Is Here to Stay and Will Increase Into 2023, Experts Say. Forbes. February 2022. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2022/02/01/remote-work-is-hereto-stay-and-will-increase-into-2023-experts-say/?sh=29c9384b20a6
7. Flynn J. 25 Trending Remote Work Statistics [2023]: Facts, Trends, And Projections. Zippi. June 2023. https://www.zippia.com/advice/remote-work-statistics/
8. Irish LA, Kline CE, Gunn HE, Buysse DJ, Hall MH. The Role of Sleep Hygiene in Promoting Public Health: A Review of Empirical Evidence. Sleep Med Rev. 2015 Aug;22:23-26. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4400203/
9. Suni E and Vyas N. Mastering Sleep Hygiene: Your Path to Quality Sleep. 2 Nov 2023. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-hygiene