For some people, sleep is a daily struggle. It seems that when one wants to sleep, the body wants to be awake and when awake, the body wants to be asleep. Sleep becomes a fight: hard to attain and then a struggle to come out of. It becomes a chronic condition for many.
About 70 million people suffer from chronic sleep problems, according to the CDC. At one point or another, between a third and a half of U.S. adults are affected by insomnia. Worldwide, between 10 and 30 percent of the population suffers from insomnia.
It’s no secret that getting an adequate amount and quality of sleep is beneficial to one’s wellbeing and quality of life. Well-rested people tend to be more social, have more positive emotional experiences with those around them and generally have better romantic lives. On the other hand, sleep deprivation lowers general happiness and degrades emotional-memory recall.
So, the seemingly obvious remedy is to sleep more, right? But, why don’t many people simply get more sleep, as long as their health is otherwise good?
In addition to stress, young children, poor sleep hygiene and physical conditions, there is something else that some refer to as “bedtime procrastination.” It’s simply the act of not going to bed at a soon enough time because they’re busy doing other things that may seem important to them at the time.
Or, some people simply want to extend the perceived time off from work by going to bed later, willing to sacrifice sleep to do so. Some call this “revenge bedtime procrastination,” in a sense rebelling against the perceived authority of the next day’s demands, for instance, needing to go to work the next day. People simply avoid going to bed because that would seem to make tomorrow come that much earlier. A resistance to being “told” to go to bed by the existence of the next day’s demands. And, since bedtime is something people feel they can control, they go without sleep as a form of rebellion.
So, What to Do?
As absurd as it sounds, revenge bedtime can result in quite a bit of disrupted sleep. Simply thinking about the problem and acknowledging the ways one may be sabotage their own sleep is a big head start. Then, instead of thinking about bedtime as a loss of control over one’s schedule, and therefore, life, one can turn that around. A short time before one’s scheduled bedtime, the person can tell him or herself something like, “I have control over my schedule and I am in fact choosing to go to bed at this time.”
Yes, it may seem childish at first, but it is a simple thing to try to deal with the situation in a mature way to quiet a rebelling mind. The thing is to make peace with yourself regarding your attitude towards bedtime. To make it a friend instead of an enemy.
Oh, and purchasing a great quality mattress at Vermont Bedrooms is another great thing to try. Yes, that’s a blatant sales pitch, but it is a fact that Vermont Bedrooms carries a fantastic selection of mattresses for any budget. Either shop online here or go to the physical store, located at 159 U.S. Route 4 in Rutland Town, Vermont. The friendly staff there will help you find the right mattress for your needs.