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Only the one series episode, then finally we sleep.
But actually I could have a quick look at Instagram.
Oh, and I wanted to look for new sweatpants too!
Many people know this: at night, when there is finally nothing more to do and do, they hang around for hours on some screens.
It costs sleep, but at the same time has something liberating.
When else can you pursue your own interests - undisturbed by your job, your children or your partner?
There is even a name for this behavior.
In three words he sums up what it is actually about: "Revenge bedtime procrastination" is the waste of time in the evening with which you want to take revenge for the time robbed you during the day.
The term originally comes from China ("bàofùxìng áoyè"), the country of the infamous 996 overtime system.
Above all parcel carriers, but also many employees of IT companies work there from nine in the morning until nine in the evening, six days a week.
The free time between shifts is enough to eat, shower and sleep, but not to relax or pursue hobbies.
Some hard-working Chinese therefore shift their free time into the night.
They sleep less in order to get a little more out of their life.
Make up for free time at night
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And they don't seem to be alone in that.
When the US journalist Daphne K. Lee tweeted about the phenomenon of revenge leisure in the summer of 2020, more than 350,000 people felt it addressed within a very short time.
They recognized themselves in it and shared their own experiences with postponing sleep every evening.
It also became clear that, in addition to people who work a lot, another group is severely affected by "Revenge bedtime procrastination" - parents.
"I'm always exhausted, the night is the only time of the day that is only mine," tweeted a single mother.
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The idea of catching up on your non-existent free time may sound sensible at first.
After all, everyone needs a little time just for themselves.
But can it even work like this?
Isn't every serial binger and every Instagram scroller painfully aware at the same time that they are killing themselves?
In any case, she could not imagine that procrastination at a late hour would even have a positive effect, says psychologist Gisela Kaiser: "From my own experience and from the many interviews I conducted for my book on digital addictions, I know that the time on the screen drains people and takes them away from themselves. "
According to psychotherapist Dirk Stemper, the reason for this is pretty clear.
Because even if we think we are relaxing, our body feels completely different.
“The recreational value of smartphones, iPads or laptops is zero, because the following applies to our eyes and our brain: screen time is working time.
Our body always perceives artificial light in the same way, regardless of whether we are looking at profit and loss accounts or cat videos, ”says Stemper.
Free time gained, sleep lost
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The freedom that many people are still looking for on the Internet at night comes primarily at the expense of the sleep account.
Forty percent of adults, says Stemper, suffered from lack of sleep anyway because they only get six hours or less of sleep a night.
"More screen time disrupts falling asleep and thus shortens the duration of sleep, and it also ruins the quality of sleep," explains the psychotherapist.
In addition, the LED light on the screens shows us that we are still reasonably fit just before going to bed, even if we have long since ceased to be - that disturbs, as Stemper puts it, “our internal clock”.
Anyone who indulges in the "Revenge bedtime procrastination" at least suspects it all.
And still don't stop there.
For Gisela Kaiser, the effect is even increased by the Corona period.
“So much is happening online right now, everything is in the direction of virtual relationships,” says the psychologist.
Currently, 25 percent of the employed work in the home office, another 20 percent switch between the office and the desk at home, this was the result of a representative survey of 1503 employees on behalf of the digital association Bitkom.
A clear line between work and leisure?
Very few people can pull, now even less than before the pandemic.
It is extremely important for well-being to be able to distance yourself mentally and spatially from the job, studies have been suggesting this for years.
So the question is: Can you satisfy your own need for free time without the nocturnal series marathon?
At least psychotherapist Stemper is firmly convinced of this.
He says: “When we postpone sleep, the main aim is to avoid emotions.
Are we perhaps afraid of not being able to fall asleep?
Are we afraid that the thoughts of the day might catch up with us again?
Avoidance is not a character weakness, but an active process.
Before we indulge ourselves in the power of habit every night, we have to start our self-control - and replace one active behavior with another. "
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Stemper recommends various measures for this.
If that is possible, it could help not to work during the day in the room in which one comes to rest at night.
Even fixed media rules - do not take your laptop to bed with you, binge only on the weekend, Instagram and Facebook only twice a day - can help, according to Stemper, to noticeably reduce the procrastination of revenge.
Gisela Kaiser also advises you to allow yourself a fixed duration for daily wasting time on the Internet: "A maximum of one hour."
"You can't catch up on free time"
An alternative way to save leisure time is to write a diary or journaling, for example, says Stemper.
“It is an excellent sleep aid to write down the challenges of the day.
That removes the worry stone from the heart. "
The psychotherapist explains that there is just one mistaken belief: “We cannot catch up on time, no free time and, first of all, no lifetime.
But maybe we don't even have to if we learn to deal more consciously with the time we have. "
Gisela Kaiser and Dirk Stemper also deal with the pitfalls of permanent digital presence in their books
Source: Cherry Media GmbH, Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft / Iconist
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