Have you ever felt your evening was wasted if you didn’t squeeze in a Netflix binge before bed? If yes, you could be indulging in bedtime procrastination – a term used to describe delaying going to bed because your day so far has been taken up by work, chores and errands. 

This procrastination can border on obstinateness fuelled by resentment. Enter ‘revenge’ bedtime procrastination, a psychological phenomenon in which you refuse to turn in at a reasonable time, trying to recoup the day’s lost time by taking control of your evening hours. 

When you’ve spent the day working or doing tasks you don’t necessarily enjoy, the evening provides the perfect time to decompress, whether you spend it planted in front of series or scrolling through Instagram for hours. Although giving yourself this late-night me time can be tempting in the moment, late nights followed by early mornings and busy days can lead to sleep deprivation, which can have negative effects on your mental, physical, and emotional health.

Importance of routine

Dr Dale Rae, senior researcher at the University of Cape Town and director of business consultancy Sleep Science, says healthy routines are crucial to maintain strong circadian rhythms. ‘Every cell in your body tells the time, and they’re all coordinated by a “master clock” in your brain, which is synchronised to the daylight cycle outside,’ she says. ‘We’re biologically wired to sleep in a specific pattern.’

Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has been a huge disrupter to our usual day-to-day routines. While most of us have grown used to working from home as the pandemic has endured, it has still presented huge challenges in maintaining a healthy work-life balance, making it harder to ‘switch off’ come 5 pm. 

‘Prior to the pandemic, I was an early riser and rarely slept in on weekends, but in the first lockdown, I clocked an incredible amount of overtime, sometimes working till 12 am or 1 am,’ says Nicola van Zyl, a Pretoria-based consultant. ‘I stopped working those hours this year, but now I’m wired to stay up until midnight anyway and am rising later and later. I just hate going to bed early, even when I know I’m going to be tired the next day.’ 

And Nicola isn’t alone. Capetonian Shameez Patel Papathanasiou, who works full time from home as an engineer and is mom to a busy toddler, says that she relies heavily on her nightly Netflix binge before bedtime – even if it cuts into her sleeping time. ‘While sleep may be good for my body, there isn’t much of a mental or emotional reward for me for going to bed an hour earlier versus, say, watching an episode of something I enjoy.’

Shifting habits

Together with a team of researchers, Dr Rae set out to conduct a large-scale South African study to investigate the effects of the pandemic on our daily routine as it relates to lifestyle factors, such as sleep, physical activity, work, meal timing and screen time. ‘The biggest thing we noticed was that sleep time has been extended to much later; those working from home would start work later and finish work later, and mealtimes became less regimented and more sporadic,’ she says. ‘Exercise was also reduced or stopped completely, and there was a huge increase in screen and sitting time – basically a massive shift towards sedentary behaviour. None of this is great from a physiological perspective,’ she adds.

One of the more positive effects that Dr Rae and her team observed is the new-found flexibility brought about by the pandemic. ‘The disruption has actually enabled some of us to discover what routine suits us best. Our society tends to favour the larks (morning people) out there, encouraging people to be up and active at the crack of dawn,’ says Dr Rae. ‘But that only suits a small percentage of the population.’ Now, due to this forced change in routine, the night owls among us can enjoy a lie-in, ease into the day and then burn the midnight oil, when they’re usually at their best.

However, this isn’t a licence to go rogue and to have no rhythm. ‘Don’t take it to the extreme and get completely out of sync with the light-dark cycle,’ says Dr Rae. ‘It’s important to remember that, ultimately, we’re designed to be sleeping when the sun is down.’

According to Dr Rae, the fact that people want to carve out some me time at the end of the day to decompress is good, as it can help them get into a space where they can have healthy sleep hygiene. She encourages her clients to budget time for the winding-down period. ‘It’s essential from a mental-health perspective to give yourself that time out, provided that the wake-up time is realistically adjusted to allow for a decent night’s rest.’ 

If you’re concerned that you might be heading in the wrong direction, start by assessing your routine. ‘If you’re noticing that certain aspects of your daytime functioning are going out the window, that’s a sign that you need to make a change,’ says Dr Rae. ‘Start by looking at your mood: are you irritable or overly anxious? Then assess your productivity. Can you still happily meet deadlines and work at the pace that you’re used to? Do you rely on stimulants to get you through the day? These are all signs that you need to make improvements,’ she says.

Find your sleep ‘sweet spot’

‘The guideline for most people is seven to nine hours, but everyone has different sleep needs,’ says Dr Rae. ‘Your needs will also change depending on various factors such as the current season, your health and your fitness level.’

To work out your optimal hours, Dr Rae says to consider the sleep habits you have when you’re on leave. ‘Ignore the first few nights, because you’re most likely doing catch-up sleep during this time. On the fourth or fifth night, your sleep will start to settle at a certain timing and duration – your sleep sweet spot. For example, if it settles on seven hours, where you go to bed at midnight and wake up at 7 am, that’s what your body needs to function properly,’ says Dr Rae.

Create your ideal routine and reinforce it 

Once you’ve worked out your sweet spot and prioritised your sleeping time, you can then start working backwards to decide when to have your personal time, when to stop working, when to exercise and when to have supper. ‘Don’t stress if you deviate by an hour or so from night to night, but you do need a semblance of routine,’ says Dr Rae. ‘Once this becomes a habit, you won’t have to struggle so much to do big tasks because they’ll happen automatically.’

Limit light exposure

‘Since we’re diurnal creatures, we’re very sensitised to light. Any light exposure (even indoor lighting) will artificially extend your day and make your brain stay active,’ says Dr Rae. Consider enabling night or dark mode on your device, or install software such as Flux on your phone or computer, which adjusts your screen’s colour temperature to match the light-dark cycle. Go to bed with your phone in another room, and rely on an old-fashioned alarm clock to wake you. 

Easy on the daytime napping

It’s common to rely on a daytime nap to catch up on sleep. ‘But you need to have night-time sleep in the bag before you can “top up” with a nap – and it has to be a once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence, otherwise it’ll become a habit and impact your sleep schedule,’ says Dr Rae.

Ultimately, because of the world we live in, we’ve all become slaves to bedtime procrastination. If you find yourself needing time to decompress, that’s completely normal. Remember that it’s only a problem when your daytime functioning is negatively affected. If you feel you need to make a change, make sleep a priority and figure out the rest of your schedule from there – your mind and body will thank you 

Words: Emma Follet-Botha | Photography: Gallo/alamyimages