The Battle Against Sleep: Strategies For Staying Awake

Sleep is essential for good health, but many people struggle with bedtime procrastination, or revenge bedtime procrastination, when they delay sleep beyond their intended bedtime. This phenomenon is driven by a desire for personal time and can be a response to stress or a lack of free time during the day. While it can be tempting to stay up late, doing so can lead to serious sleep deprivation, negatively impacting your mental, physical, and emotional health. To combat bedtime procrastination, it is important to establish healthy sleep habits and create a relaxing nightly routine that avoids stimulants such as smartphones or caffeine.

You might be experiencing revenge bedtime procrastination

If you're struggling to fall asleep at night, you might be experiencing revenge bedtime procrastination. This phenomenon involves delaying sleep to reclaim a sense of control over your time, often in response to a busy or stressful day. It's called "revenge" because it's a way of getting back at the daytime hours that were filled with obligations and a lack of leisure.

Revenge bedtime procrastination is a relatively new term, coined on Chinese social media in 2014 and popularised by writer Daphne K. Lee. It has gained traction globally, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted work-life balance for many.

This type of bedtime procrastination is driven by a desire to seek personal time and entertainment after a long day of work or other commitments. It can be tempting to stay up late, but it often leads to sleep deprivation, which has negative consequences for your health and well-being.

Research has found that people who engage in revenge bedtime procrastination are more likely to experience symptoms of depression and anxiety, as well as insomnia. It can also lead to fatigue and poor sleep quality, affecting your daily functioning and overall health.

If you think you might be experiencing revenge bedtime procrastination, there are some strategies you can try to improve your sleep habits:

• Establish a relaxing bedtime routine, such as reading a book, meditating, or stretching.
• Limit your use of electronic devices before bed, especially smartphones, as they can be a major source of distraction.
• Avoid caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco, especially close to bedtime, as they can interfere with your sleep.
• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule, even on weekends, to regulate your body's internal clock.
• Make your bedroom sleep-friendly by keeping it dark, cool, and quiet.

You could be a night owl

If you don't want to sleep, you could be a night owl. Your genetics, age, sex, and environmental and lifestyle factors all influence your chronotype, which is the scientific term for whether you are an early bird or a night owl. Your chronotype determines the timing of your circadian rhythm, which is your body's internal clock. This internal clock dictates your natural sleep-wake schedule, including the timing of your daily energy peaks and dips.

While society tends to glorify early birds, different chronotypes mean that people naturally have different sleep-wake schedules. You might think you should be asleep by a certain time because that's when everyone else seems to be sleeping, but you may actually be programmed to sleep later and wake up later. There is no intrinsic moral value to different sleep schedules. However, if your job and lifestyle demand an earlier sleep-wake schedule and you're accumulating sleep debt as a result, you can gradually shift your sleep-wake times to help you get the sleep you need.

If you're a night owl, you may find it helpful to use your circadian rhythm or daily energy schedule as a guide to structuring your day. This can involve identifying your natural morning and afternoon energy peaks and tackling more challenging tasks during those times. You can also try to craft an evening routine that includes wind-down time before bed for passive leisure activities and healthy me-time. Additionally, identifying your melatonin window, which is the roughly one-hour window when your body's production of the sleep hormone melatonin is at its highest, can help you time your bedtime so that you fall asleep and stay asleep more easily.

You may be stressed or anxious

If you're feeling stressed or anxious, it could be affecting your sleep. Anxiety triggers the body's fight-or-flight stress response, prompting the adrenal glands to pump extra adrenaline and cortisol into your system, giving you a boost of energy. While this can be helpful in certain situations, it's not so helpful when you're trying to sleep. If you're experiencing chronic anxiety, your body's stress response is prolonged, keeping cortisol levels higher than they should be. The longer your body goes without a clear signal to return to normal functioning, the harder it will be to get restorative sleep.

If you're dealing with anxiety, there are some strategies you can try to help you sleep:

• Wind-down routine: Engage in relaxing activities before bed to calm your body and prepare for sleep. This could include reading a book, meditating, gentle stretching, or listening to soft music.
• Brain dump: Write down any negative thoughts or feelings in a journal or use the RISE app's Brain Dump feature to help purge these thoughts from your mind.
• Guided relaxation: Try relaxation techniques such as autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation, or breathing techniques. The RISE app has audio guides to walk you through these techniques.
• Sleep reset: If you can't fall asleep, get out of bed and do something relaxing in a different room. Return to bed only when you start to feel sleepy.

If you're struggling to manage your anxiety, consider seeking help from a qualified mental health professional. They can help you address the root causes of your anxiety and improve your mental well-being.

Additionally, creating a consistent bedtime routine and improving your sleep hygiene can also help. This includes maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, avoiding stimulants like caffeine and electronic devices before bed, and creating a relaxing bedroom environment.

You might have poor sleep hygiene

Sleep hygiene is a term that refers to both your sleep environment and your sleep-related behaviours. Poor sleep hygiene can negatively impact the quality and quantity of your sleep.

If you are struggling to fall asleep, it might be because you have poor sleep hygiene. This could mean that your bedroom is not optimised for sleep, or that your daily routines are not conducive to consistent, uninterrupted sleep.

• Set a strict sleep schedule: Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends. This gets your brain and body accustomed to getting the full amount of sleep that you need.
• Prioritise sleep: Avoid skipping sleep to work, study, socialise, or exercise. Calculate a target bedtime based on the time you need to wake up and prepare for bed accordingly.
• Make gradual adjustments: If you want to shift your sleep times, do so gradually. Making sudden changes to your sleep schedule can disrupt your body's rhythm.
• Optimise your bedroom: Make sure your bedroom is calm and free of disruptions. Use heavy curtains or an eye mask to block out light, and earplugs or a white noise machine to drown out noise. Choose comfortable bedding and set your bedroom temperature to a cool, comfortable level (around 65 degrees Fahrenheit is recommended).
• Follow a nightly routine: Having a consistent pre-sleep routine can help signal to your brain that it's time to wind down. This could include activities such as reading, listening to soft music, light stretching, or relaxation exercises.
• Unplug from electronics: The blue light emitted by electronic devices can decrease melatonin production, making it harder to fall asleep. Try to avoid screens for 30-60 minutes before bed.
• Cultivate healthy daily habits: Incorporate positive routines during the day to support your circadian rhythm and limit sleep disruptions. Get exposure to natural light, especially sunlight, and try to be physically active. Avoid stimulants like nicotine and caffeine, especially later in the day.

By improving your sleep hygiene, you can set yourself up for better, more restful sleep. However, it's important to remember that sleep hygiene alone may not cure sleep problems. If you continue to struggle with sleep, consider seeking advice from a healthcare professional.

You could be experiencing sleep reactivity

Research has identified neurobiological factors that contribute to sleep reactivity, including disrupted cortical networks, dysregulation in the autonomic nervous system, and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Sleep reactivity is particularly problematic when it is excessive, as it predicts a higher risk for future insomnia disorder and severe insomnia phenotypes, such as sleep onset insomnia and short sleep insomnia.

Additionally, high sleep reactivity is linked to an increased risk of shift-work disorder, depression, and anxiety. Stress-related worry and rumination can further exacerbate sensitive sleep systems, making it harder to fall and stay asleep.

If you suspect that you may have sleep reactivity, it is important to address these sleep disturbances before they become long-term chronic sleep problems, as they can lead to significant health issues. Establishing good sleep habits and routines can help improve your sleep quality.

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