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After a hard week – or month – sometimes all you want to do is relax on the couch or in bed and binge Netflix or other streaming services. To do nothing but decompress, not think about anything, and basically unplug from the world and responsibilities is something many of us dream about, but not something all of us can do. However, thanks to a TikTok trend, bed rotting has become a thing, and it has some great benefits … and some not-so-great side effects, as well.
Bed Rotting or Depression?
“’Bed rotting’ is a TikTok self-care trend that involves staying in bed for a full day or even an entire weekend,” according to Sleep Doctor. As described by Health: “A TikTok trend called ‘bed rotting’ involves staying in bed for extended periods, not to sleep but for passive activities like eating and watching TV. It can help you feel recharged, but it may disrupt sleep.” No matter how you look at it, this new trend is basically giving into our desires to escape work and the outside world for a little while.
This lazy exercise has become a practice for better health, allowing the mind and body to rest and rejuvenate. As Mission Prep explained: “The idea around bed rotting is to distance yourself from the pressures of the daily grind. It’s normalizing lying in bed, reading, scrolling social media, playing a video game, or watching TV. In a nutshell, the bed rotting trend is about recontextualizing behaviors that are sometimes considered shameful. You aren’t being lazy. You’re taking care of yourself.”
Nicole Hollingshead, a psychologist and clinical assistant professor of family and community medicine at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Health: “Our society tends to put too much emphasis [on] and, in some ways, [glorifies] being busy or productive all the time,” so allowing ourselves to just relax and disconnect can take away or ease some of those pressures.
This newer trend is practiced more by Gen Z than older generations, but it’s continuing to gain in popularity. Who wouldn’t want to just laze around without any guilt or feel any urgent need to clean the kitchen or mow the lawn? Bed rotting can be healthy, in small doses. But it can be dangerous as well.
The Dangers of Disconnecting
While bed rotting can be healthy if done occasionally, it can cause other health issues if one isn’t careful. If you have trouble sleeping, for instance, this technique might be a bad choice. The body can become confused after spending several hours in a rest position, so when it comes time to sleep at night, it doesn’t want to cooperate.
Also, “[s]edentary behaviors interfere with our brain’s ability to produce chemicals responsible for regulating emotional well-being: serotonin and dopamine,” Mission Prep warned. “Habits like bed rotting are also typically asocial, which can further negatively impact mental health. This effect comes down to how socializing offers subjective benefits, such as an increased feeling of belonging and enhanced self-esteem.”
The Ohio University website calls it Hurkle-Durkling, a 200-year-old Scottish term for lounging in bed long after it’s time to get up, and warns it can cause people to fall into a trap of avoidance. The longer someone is engaged in bed rotting, the higher the chance of them becoming depressed or feeling overwhelmed, the exact opposite of what the exercise is supposed to do. Hurkle-durklers can find it hard to engage in meaningful activities or even socialize with family and friends.
Also, bed rotting may be a sign of depression. Health explained: “Melatonin production increases during depressive cycles, making the victim feel more lethargic.” Furthermore, “spending lots of time in bed is also an avoidance behavior. People suffering from depression use it in an attempt to escape the pressures of everyday life.
Let’s face it. We all would enjoy a day or so just to decompress, but not everyone relaxes in the same way. Some go fishing while others may enjoy reading a good book, and some may visit friends or family. This new trend can be healthy if done very sparingly, but more than a day or two could be cause for concern.
