Revenge bedtime procrastination: What is it? Are you doing it too?

The term “revenge bedtime procrastination” sounds very aggressive and like something you have known and you have been doing off the bat. But it often harmlessly occurs when the house is silent and kids are asleep and your emails have stopped circulating in. It’s 1 AM and you already know that you have to get up in just a few hours to start another hectic day, but you hit play on the next scene of your favorite Netflix show anyway. If this sounds like you, then revenge bedtime procrastination is really something you likely partake in right now.

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It is not a diagnosable condition perhaps, but Drerup says that she worked with many patients who struggle with revenge bedtime procrastination and it is increasing more. The term “bedtime procrastination” comes from an article which was published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology in 2014, with some research workers defining it as “failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so.” The word “revenge” fits in as the 12 hours in a day and 6 day a week work schedule that some workers in China face result in their efforts to take control over their free time by deliberately staying up late.

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Feeling like you don’t have sufficient free time and that you generally lack control are both generally causes that were linked back to revenge bedtime procrastination. Kuljeet Gill, M.D. sleep medicine specialist at Northern-western Medicine Central DuPage Hospital says that “In today’s world where our time is so controlled by work, family and school schedules, sometimes people look at it as their own time to do what they want and gain control of their own life and time and what activities they want to do.”