Posted by I recently came across the term “revenge bedtime procrastination” and realized this is me.
I put so much energy into being my best self during the busy part of the day—parenting, work, training—but, once the toddler is in bed, my self-awareness shuts off. Plopping in front of the TV to catch the next one (or two) episodes of Shetland or mindless doomscrolling through Twitter. (The irony of linking to a tweet to explain revenge bedtime procrastination is not lost on me.)
This has been even more a problem in the past few months with COVID, politics, and life changes all creating lots of additional stress. Late in the day, I rationalize my choices, I earned this. In reality, it’s just pushing off the need to deal with emotions/thoughts/responsibilities when finally left alone to my own devices. It creates a negative feedback loop—a cycle of behavior which feeds itself.
Replacing my bad habit with something positive I think is key to breaking the cycle. James Clear, author of Atomic Habits would encourage me to make it obvious, easy, and satisfying. I’ll have to put some thought into what this could be, but a nighttime walk might be a nice start.
I’m just now waking up to the possibility that my bedtime hygiene is contributing to my already bad sleeping habits and becoming a big limiter to my training. Figuring this out should be at the top of my list, well ahead of “run cadence” and “new wetsuit.”
Photo by Aurélien Dockwiller on Unsplash
Out and Back 