Why You Can’t Get to Bed “On Time”

Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash

Most of us aren’t getting enough sleep. Bluntly, most of us never get enough sleep.

But a lot might have noticed a new phenomenon: It’s really hard to go to bed.

Scientists in the Netherlands call it “bedtime procrastination.” You know you need to hit the hay eight hours before your alarm, but somehow you’re still up, doing nothing in particular, two hours later.

Why does this happen, and why are more of us doing it? (Self included. Ahem).

Bedtime and Control

Most scientists call bedtime procrastination a lack of willpower or the result of low self-discipline. There’s a slew of self-help articles out there on how to stop bedtime procrastination, how terrible it is for you, etc.

Here’s the thing:

If you find yourself procrastinating about bedtime right now, you probably don’t have less willpower than you did in 2019.

You might have less of it to spare because you’re using more of it on staying sane while the world goes crazy around you.

What’s going on with many people right now is a slightly different phenomenon.