On Revenge Bedtime Procrastination

I often hear from clients that they are exhausted.

And when I asked them about their day and their productivity habits, they often

tell me how busy they are . Then they get home and they take care of their family

and they have other responsibilities.

Eventually I asked them how they relax.

Most of the time.

It's by watching Netflix in the evening, just before bedtime

and bingeing on shows at night.

So what's wrong with this?

Well, the problem is that using screens before bedtime has been

shown to inhibit your REM sleep and make you more tired in the morning.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the term revenge, bedtime procrastination

crept up and went viral on social media.

In this episode, we'll talk about what it is and an alternative to

revenge bedtime procrastination.

I'm Amin Ahmed and welcome to be well do well.

Why do we need to take revenge on our bedtime?

Usually it's because we don't feel like we have control during the day.

Maybe your clients are taking your time away from creative work, or

maybe have a family with young kids and lots of responsibilities.

One solution to making time for yourself is to find little pockets

of time throughout your day.

For example, at lunch, you could go out for a walk in nature or meet

a friend and just go for a stroll.

Rather than sitting in front of your computer and having lunch, going outside

is a great way, not only to get a little bit of fresh air, some exercise,

but also to get some of that me time.

Another way to take control back is to set a limit.

The problem isn't that you're necessarily bingeing on Netflix.

It's that you lose control and you don't have a stop time.

Ideally, you don't want to be watching any screens at night, but initially

try cutting back to maybe only one episode, then try for a time limit,

maybe only 10 minutes of a show.

The more, you keep promises to yourself, the higher in integrity

you'll be and the easier it will be in the future to keep to your promises.

Once you built up your muscle to not binge at night, you'll find that

occasionally you still get the urge.

For when this situation arises, set aside a day and make it your Netflix night.

Maybe you'll set aside Saturday evening and watch a movie or

watch three or four shows.

Whatever works for you, just make sure that it's in your control.

If you're really serious, grab your journal, your notepad, your sticky

pad, and write down the day that you're going to stop Netflix bingeing at night.

Once you decide on that date, after that, there's no more bingeing at night.

So as a recap, you can make time for yourself during the day by going for a

short walk or taking some time in nature.

You should also set a time limit so that you know how much time you're

spending and when it's too much.

And lastly pick a day that you allow yourself to watch a

little bit of Netflix at night.

I hope this has been helpful.

Join us tomorrow for discussion on health and wealth.

This is one of my favorite topics and it's going to be a great episode.