Picture this: it’s Sunday morning and you’ve got an endless “to-do” list awaiting you. There’s laundry to fold, errands to run and a life to tend to. Rather than spring up on your feet and seize the day, you find it more appealing to lay in bed and bounce from app to app, liking every TikTok dance and gagging at every Instagram engagement announcement until the sun becomes the moon. Tucked under layers of blankets with your phone and snack in hand, this is bed rotting.
The latest self-care trend has taken the internet by storm, and it’s one you may be practicing without even knowing it. If you’re not careful, though, this self-care could become self sabotage, so let’s explore how to healthily practice bed rotting before it could potentially do more harm than good.
What Is Bed Rotting?
Self-care has evolved through several different shapes and iterations over time. It isn’t just bubble baths and face masks anymore; we’ve up-leveled to solo movie dates, boundary setting and luxurious yoni steams. The mindless scrolling act of bed rotting has been added to the roster by Gen Z adolescents who feel burnt out from work, school and a demanding world.
While bed rotting seems like a new thing due to its ties with social media, truthfully, we’ve been doing it since the dawn of technology. Calling back to channel surfing, humans have long escaped the chaotic unraveling of their mind by mindlessly consuming some form of media. It’s a method of quieting the mind and operating on autopilot, free from the prison of critical thinking and needing to be “on.”
Is Bed Rotting Bad for You?
Bed rotting may not be the healthiest practice if it lends way to your life being wasted away by consuming social media. If you find yourself undisciplined with accomplishing tasks, mentally overstimulated or comparing the quality of your life with the false portrayals you see online, bed rotting could be negatively impacting your sense of self.
If your bed rotting exceeds a day or two, you’re no longer practicing mindfully and there’s room for concern regarding your mental health. Once the exercise becomes habitual, it could be a sign of depression. It could also impact the quality of your sleep by confusing the body and making it more difficult to shut down when it’s time for bed.
How To Safely Bed Rot
So, is there a healthy method of bed rotting that won’t equate to wasting your life away? If you find yourself to be an over-thinker, dizzied by the revolving door of your own thoughts or addicted to productivity with no margin for mindless meandering, a day of bed rotting could actually do your psyche some good.
In small and intentional doses, bed rotting can calm the body and help ease stress and exhaustion, especially for those working long hours in a physically or mentally demanding role. It’s all about discernment, discipline and balance. If you want to make bed rotting a part of your self care practice to supplement feeling overworked or burnt out, it’s important to schedule it with intention and make sure to never let your practice exceed a day, supplementing with exercise and sunlight once you reemerge.
Prioritize Your Self Care
Whether it’s scrolling away bed rotting or spending time immersed in nature, having a lazy day can be just as useful as a productive one if it’s what your body truly needs. As long as you’re able to recognize when the line is being crossed from recharged to neglected, bed rotting could be a helpful tool for burn out recovery.