Are you in the habit of staying up late at night—maybe way too late? Are you regularly staying up late even though you know you will regret it when your alarm goes off in the morning? Are you pitting nighttime you against morning you? Does morning you kind of hate nighttime you?
If so, you may be engaged in something that has come to be known as “revenge bedtime procrastination,” which is defined this way at sleepfoundation.org:
“Revenge bedtime procrastination” is when people intentionally stay up late to enjoy personal time, even when they know it will negatively affect their sleep. It often happens when individuals feel they have little control over their daily schedules.
Everybody needs restful sleep to remain healthy, so revenge bedtime procrastination is not a good idea for anyone—and it is a particularly bad habit to get into if you are in recovery from a substance use disorder.
Let’s take a closer look at revenge bedtime procrastination and how you might get your nighttime self on the same page as your daytime self.
Just Who Are You Getting Revenge on Anyway?
The idea of getting revenge involves punishing someone for something bad they have done to you.
Take, for example, the character Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride. Throughout the film, Montoya is seeking to get revenge on the “six-fingered man” who killed his father. When Montoya is finally able to confront his father’s killer, he delivers one of the most famous lines in all of moviedom: “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
In The Princess Bride, who did what to whom is pretty clear. But when it comes to revenge bedtime procrastination, it is fair to ask who your nighttime self might be getting revenge against. After all, morning you did not do anything to nighttime you, so you probably are not seeking revenge on yourself.
Instead, you are likely seeking revenge against your own busy schedule. All too often, we feel pressured to go and go and go in order to fulfill all of our obligations. As a result, it can feel as though the only time we have to ourselves comes around late at night. So, we stay up late to reclaim some of the time we have not had to ourselves throughout the day.
But can you really get revenge on your schedule? “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. I’m very busy. Prepare for late-night binge watching,” just does not have the same ring to it, does it?
So the question is: Given the fact that your bedtime procrastination only hurts you—and endangers your recovery—how can you make a change for the better?
The Value of a Nighttime Routine
In a previous blog post, we asked you to call to mind the efforts the adults in your life may have made to establish a bedtime routine for you when you were a child. We suggested that establishing your own nighttime routine as an adult is a great way to move toward more consistent and more restful sleep.
Among our suggestions in that previous post was setting a bedtime (and a waking time) for yourself. Doing so can help you avoid the temptation to stay up late in a useless attempt to teach your schedule a lesson.
It might take some time to establish a routine for yourself, but the effort is worthwhile. As we wrote:
Establishing a good sleep routine is not necessarily easy, but the effort is worthwhile. Think back to the work your folks did to establish some regular, predictable patterns in the runup to your bedtime. Those routines helped you calm down and get the rest you needed. That approach can work for you as an adult as well. It might require a little patience to get the routine down pat and to stick with it, but you can train your brain and body to get with the program—and doing so firms up the foundation of your ongoing recovery.
Now, About that Schedule of Yours
The ongoing rush, rush, rush of daily life can seem overwhelming, and it can lead to significant stress that, in turn, can threaten your recovery. That is why we think it is essential to build time to rest, relax, and recharge into your schedule. After all, you put important things into your calendar—and opportunities to do things you enjoy are important to your physical health, your mental health, and your recovery. We wrote about various ways to reduce stress here.
Do Not Procrastinate When It Comes to Getting Help
At Wooded Glen Recovery Center, located in Henryville, Indiana, we believe the best time to get help addressing a substance use disorder is always right now. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that drugs or alcohol will chip away at your life in devastating ways. Reclaiming your life sooner rather than later is the best thing you can do for yourself.
Wooded Glen is an award-winning treatment facility that provides personalized care to help you overcome a substance use disorder and co-occurring mental health disorders. When you are ready to make a change for the better, we are here to help make that possible.