You claim you’re gonna hit the pillow by nine – at the latest.
Before you know it, though, it’s eleven.
And, instead of rushing to bed, you don’t budge.
Instead, here you are: imploring the mom part of your brain to let you watch just one more episode of this show about a blind alcoholic who goes around solving murders. (No, f’real, it’s called “In The Dark” and it’s really good and I shouldn’t be telling you this ’cause you’re totally gonna binge it tonight…) Or maybe you’re not even a movie watcher. Maybe you justify your late nights with reading up on the fifth dimension or how to be a boss bish with your business books. Maybe you’re watching Jason Silva documentaries. Perhaps you’ve got a passion project. Yeah… You’re better than those other people because what you’re doing is more noble. Right?
But, then, why not get up a little earlier?
And dedicate your morning hours to that?
The answer is: maybe it’s not any better. And maybe it is.
Typically, sleep scientists have shown that you get your best rest and restorative snooze time between key hours (sometime in the 9 or 10 at night to 4 or 5 in the morning area – although specifics get debated). But that doesn’t really account for outliers, does it? We can make generalizations all day. But at the end of it, we’re all a bit physiologically unique. So the only question to ask yourself is: are you suffering from it? Does putting off nodding off give you insomnia that keeps you sleepless? Or does what you’re doing each night revive you anew when the alarm sounds because sleep is just a necessary inconvenience you suffer reluctantly as fuel for a new adventure? (I do genuinely know people who feel like this.) But, something tells me you wouldn’t be reading this if all was well in your endless well of energy.
So, let’s look at why we do this.
And the fun part is, it actually has a name:
Revenge bedtime procrastination.
Sounds like a mouthful for something that could honestly just be called rest rebellion. But, I digress. Question is: why do we procrastinate? Well, for some of us, as mentioned above, it’s analogous to a bratty kid fighting his night time routine. For a child, life is still novel and exciting. Your body still works properly, so it’s fun to use. Your brain is still growing, so it wants to know the why behind literally everything. Every stimulus is still new, so we wanna be awake to experience it all for as many hours as we can. For inspired adults, it’s no different. If we have a painting we’re creating, book we’re ensconced in, or even a work project that we’re excited about… that’s tough to put down. And the analogy goes further. Much like kids hopped up on dessert sugar, our coffee may still be keeping us fueled to want to do those things. We’re wide awake. And, unless we’re Elon Musk, we may not have been doing our primary passion all day long. We want to do what lights a fire under our arse. So, bedtime ends up taking a hit.
Then, there’s the other end of the spectrum.
Escape. Psychological relief. Mental respite.
For these folks, life at work might be totally unfulfilling. Or, if you’re in this group, you might just be such an empath that spending 8 hours around others is draining. These are the people who may come home, cuddle a reluctant labrador, turn on twelve forms of technology, and pour a glass of wine. (Which probably won’t be the last of the eve.) The fact that all of these are addictive substances doesn’t help motivate one to get to bed early either. Even worse? The longer we stay up, the higher our anxiety gets – knowing we should get to bed, that we don’t enjoy most of our lives, that we’re going to die alone. (Oh, wow. That got dark quickly…) Either way, we know our next conscious moment after sleep will be getting ready for another day of labor. The result? We’re stuck with this toxic cocktail of our own adrenaline, the stimulation of technology, blue screens keeping us awake, and (if we’re drinkers), the inevitable fitful sleep that alcohol gives us even though we try to tell ourselves it doesn’t. We claim we have insomnia. But we’re honestly doing it to ourselves with what we choose to do. All because we’re spiteful about our lives.
Sure, that doesn’t happen for the former group. Their pupils may live in a pool of perma rouge scleras. But, unfulfilled and bored they are not. That said, regardless of which end of spectrum you’re perched upon, the common denominator is the same. Willpower. It’s a finite thing. We wake up each day (assuming we’re well rested) with a normal amount of it. Then, as the day wears on and we’re forced to perform a variety of tasks we don’t wanna do, make annoying decisions, and problem solve… it heads into the red. By the time we clock out, we’re riding on fumes. There’s very little – if any – left. So, we only do what we absolutely have to and flip the finch at the rest of our duties.
(Keep reading to see why we’re like this… and how to fix it)