Don't fight sleep to chill out

So who else is having trouble returning to daily life post-holiday in the new year because they borked their sleep cycles, especially after being on leave for over a week? Or are you (still) losing sleep over having to return to a full five- or six-day work week?

Tips on sleep like this are all over the web, so picking one or two lists to fix our sleep cycles and get better sleep should be a cinch. But not all of us can be bothered with execution.

"Vengeance" for lost time

One problem is something called "revenge bedtime procrastination": the tendency to delay sleep to indulge in leisure activities one did not have time for during the day. The term is said to have emerged in China, which has arguably punishing work schedules, to describe how exhausted workers stay up late as "revenge" for time lost to long work hours.

This tendency is common among those with high-stress jobs and vocations. Long hours, taxing work conditions, long commutes, and blurred or non-existent work-life boundaries contribute to the urge to "steal back" some time for oneself. Anxieties over work and life can also lead one to put off sleep and occupy one's mind with activities that don't require much thought.

If you feel overworked or burnt out, the urge to sacrifice sleep for leisure activity is stronger and you stay up late more often. But do you have to binge-watch that TV series, reread that book, or mindlessly scroll through your social media feeds – again? "Just a couple more minutes", you think, over and over. Before you know it, it's almost midnight?

So much for beating the morning traffic to work tomorrow, because your mind will need some time to settle down before it shuts down for the night. Expect to take longer to fall asleep if you've been staring at your TV or mobile devices because the light from the screens will mess up the light/dark cycle that regulates your body clock.

Restore your sleep cycle

Revenge bedtime procrastination – let's call it RBP – leads to sleep deprivation, which does terrible things to your body in the long run. There's plenty of literature out there that spells out what happens when you deny yourself an adequate amount of sleep night after night but to summarise, sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on your mental health, immune system, cognitive functions, and your sleep cycle.

One way to tackle RBP is to catch yourself doing it. If it's almost bedtime and you still feel doomscrolling or watching TV is preferable to going to sleep, STOP. That's harder than it sounds because you can get addicted to RBP, especially if it's been a bad day. Often, you don't realise you're RBP-ing because it's baked into your after-hours schedule. Raise awareness of your actions by practising mindfulness.

As you become more aware of what you're doing, work on fixing your sleep schedule. Some may take a few days, others may take weeks or more, so give it some urgency. Some recommendations:

• Ensure that the bedroom is for sleep. Some of us have a computer table in the bedroom because "there's no other place for it". No. Get that PC out of there if you can, and if it's a laptop, it can go anywhere. Your mind needs to register that bed equals sleep, so if you want to read or doomscroll, do it elsewhere. Cover your windows with light-blocking curtains and keep the bedroom cool.
• Establish a nighttime routine and stick to it. Reach home after work, bathe, have dinner, and wind down for the day. What you do to wind down is important as it will affect your sleep. If you want to layan your social media, put it first on the list and set a cut-off time for that before doing other stuff that doesn't involve staring at a screen. Your brain likes regularity, and a sequence of activities before bedtime will make it easy for you to slip into blissful slumber each night. Go to bed on the same time each night, even when you don't have to go to work or class the next day.
• Schedule your hobbies on weekends or holidays. This can be hard but is the end of a work day a good time to dive into video games, miniature building, or making custom jewellery? Such activities keep your mind alert – a bad idea when you're supposed to be winding down for the day. "But this is how I wind down!" In that case, start by cutting down the number of hours you spend on How You Wind Down™ and do the bulk on weekends and holidays. Or pick up more relaxing hobbies you can spend time on after work on weekdays.
• Watch what you eat or drink before bedtime. Some suggest not taking caffeine or alcohol in the late afternoons or evenings, but certain foods like spicy stuff can cause gastric distress that can affect sleep. Eating late at night is a no-no too as this is the time one is prone to unhealthy snacking and because of increased insulin resistance at night, all those calories will end up as fat. Fortunately, an expert gives some examples of what to eat (plus how much) and what to avoid if you can't stave off the late-night munchies.

RBP feeds a pattern of behaviours that can be difficult to break, but as long as you know what is leading you to ditch sleep, you can arrest those behaviours and begin fixing them by forming good habits that lead to better sleep.

The next step would be to manage the stress that leads to RBP. May we suggest starting with meditation?