Bedtime procrastination, or more formally ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’ is the phenomenon where you “stay up; ‘cause you can”. When a reasonable hour comes to consider a nighttime routine, instead you opt to spend the time in leisurely activities.
Why’s this happen? Even the most disciplined people can get caught up in the daily shuffle from activity to activity, meeting to meeting, chore to chore - “adulting”. The reality is this treadmill of never ending responsibility often leads to sacrificing your own leisure time in exchange for ‘productivity’. The time that is left that you control is the time after your responsibilities end.
What are the less-healthy choices we make when we procrastinate a bedtime?
- doom scrolling (social media, short format videos, ftw!)
- watching [bad] television
- pretty much anything other than sleep that gives us a simple pleasure
The most common and addressable are the first two, which, through a little habit re-engineering you can either reduce or remove the harm they cause to a healthy bedtime routine.
Blue light (higher energy light emitted from ‘screens’ and energy-efficient lighting) messes with the body in many ways. The principal way that it affects sleep is when blue light is present, the body doesn’t secrete melatonin - the hormone that influences sleep cycles.
Three quick strategies to decrease or eliminate blue-light exposure:
If you are looking to reduce your exposure to blue light (harm reduction goal), most phones now have settings to reduce blue light. On iPhone this is the Night Shift mode - which you can configure to automatically engage during certain hours. I have mine set to engage at 8:30 each evening, 90 minutes ahead of my 10pm goal bedtime.
For bedroom lighting, use ‘warm’ color temperatures. These appear ‘yellow’ versus ‘blue’ - look for color temperatures of 2700 or 3000 degrees Kelvin on lights - on the following gradient they would look more like the first 3 lights.
Reduce use of (ultimately remove) your television from your bedroom. Televisions provide great leisurely entertainment but emit blue light and stimulate the brain. The people who find the best cycles of sleep have removed televisions from their sleeping area.
Aside from blue light, the largest common suggestion that is supported in evidence is to only use your bed for sleeping or sex. This will create a relationship for your brain to associate bed use with releasing melatonin, relaxing, and sleeping. If you do other leisure activity you will continue to stimulate your brain - I’m personally guilty of reading books in bed as a compromise to this suggestion. It works for me, it relaxes me, and ultimately I have a decent sleep cycle, so figure out what works for you!
Ultimately, you’ll want to seek ways to fit leisure activities into your day, which hopefully you can do as you start to work on your own Wellth!