- Do you find that your day is so busy, so full
that you just don't have time to unwind and do stuff,
and that means that at night,
you stay up later and later to catch up,
you're getting less and less sleep,
and the next day,
you're feeling sleep deprived and even cranky?
This is known as revenge bedtime procrastination,
strange title I know, but keep watching
and I'll tell you exactly what that is and how to end it.
So, you know, I used to do this,
I used to work so much, see so many clients that
I'd come home at eight o'clock, nine o'clock,
and then think, "Well, I've been working all day."
Or maybe I was writing,
I'd be writing until 10:30 at night,
writing a book, writing documents, doing something,
and then I'd switch off at 10 and think,
"Okay, I really need to watch a movie now,
"because I won't feel like I've had any downtime
"unless I spend three hours on the sofa watching Netflix,
"going through a series."
I should have gone to bed, but my brain said,
"I need something to signify work has finished
"and I've got some downtime.
"I don't just want to go to bed
"because then I'm working, sleeping, working, sleeping."
So I'd lie on the sofa, I'd watch movies,
I'd eat food, I'd do some laundry,
all to signify I had my downtime.
But then the next day, I'd be so tired
I'd actually end up eating chocolate to get an energy burst,
doing things I didn't want to do,
not functioning well because I hadn't had enough sleep,
and I'd gone to bed really late.
Going to bed at three a.m.
and getting five hours of sleep is not enough.
It's not just the hours of sleep you get,
it's the time you go to sleep.
And I realized this was really damaging my health.
And some of the effects
of revenge bedtime procrastination are
we eat really badly, we use sugar and caffeine
and anything to give us a boost,
we get very cranky, it affects our mental health,
it affects our hormones.
People who do night shifts and always work through the night
and don't get their normal sleep at the required sleep times
often have hormonal problems,
hormonal problems, mental health problems.
You can even be more likely to get diabetes
and cardiovascular disease
just by not getting enough sleep at the right time.
After all, sleep is nature's restorer.
We have a body clock,
and we're designed to go to bed when it's dark,
to wake when it's light.
To go to bed at about 10, having stopped eating at six,
because everything revolved around the light,
but now we have electricity,
we can stay up late,
we can sleep less and eat more.
And it's really impacting our mental, our physical,
and, indeed, our emotional health.
So revenge bedtime procrastination literally translates as
someone who sacrifices their sleep time
to do pleasurable activities
they couldn't do during the day.
"I'm going to go on the phone,
"I'm going to go on FaceTime and eBay and Amazon.
"I'm going to look at all these videos.
"I'm going to have so much pleasure when I should be sleeping."
Because we think, "Oh, sleep is boring.
"I need to do all this stuff.
"I need to catch up."
That's what it is.
So that's what it is, but how do you stop it?
One of the things you can do is go, "Okay,"
if, like how I used to be,
when I finish work, I need to symbolize my leisure time,
say, "Okay, I'm going to have an hour of television.
"I'm going to have half an hour of screen time.
"I'm going to spend a while on the phone,
"but the big stuff can wait until the weekend.
"I'll catch up my Netflix, catch up my phone calls,
"catch up my laundry, catch up everything at the weekend,"
because nothing is more important than sleep.
Sleep is nature's restorer.
So give yourself a boundary, a schedule.
"It's 10:30, I've finished work, I've been working all night.
"I feel like I'm glued to this computer,
"but now I'm going to have an hour of television,
"that's my recreation.
"I'm going to spend 10 minutes on the phone,
"but I will be in bed by 12 o'clock."
Maybe for you it's 11.
When you finish working, tell yourself, "This is my time."
And I know mothers who say, "You know,
"I had my kids come in,
"I'm cooking, I'm doing laundry,
"I'm cleaning, I'm doing stuff.
"And then I finish at 11 o'clock
"and I think, 'I need something for me.
"'I need to lie on the sofa and watch a film,
"'eat some ice cream, call some friends,
"'go on a site and start looking at stuff I'd like to buy,
"'start looking at holidays,
"'anything that says I'm not working.'"
So it's all about this needing to draw the boundary
between work, care, chores, and duty,
and something fun for me.
So decide, "I only need an hour.
"An hour is plenty of time to watch a show,
"do something I want, paint my nails, have a bath,"
whatever you want to do.
Don't work out and then do that before sleeping
because it stimulates you too much.
Just chill, unwind, but decide, "I only need one hour
"and then I'm in bed sleeping.
"And that's the greatest gift I could give myself is sleep,
"the best thing I can give myself.
"Because at the weekend, I can catch up on everything,
"but I only need one hour to signify chores are ended,
"work is ended; this is my leisure, this is my downtime.
"I don't need very much at all."
And then go to bed and see bed as a pleasure.
See bed as a wonderful place.
Get excited about going to bed.
"I'm going to be in bed with the covers around me, dreaming.
"I'm going to wake up tomorrow feeling so good."
Because you can't actually catch up with the lost sleep.
When you have lost sleep, it's gone forever,
you can't catch up at the weekend.
You know, one of the ways to make people go crazy
is to deny them sleep.
That's why people are tortured
and interrogated in the middle of the night,
they give up everything without sleep.
So do not deprive yourself of sleep
because it really is a deprivation.
It's not a reward.
It's not a gift.
It is a deprivation, a punishment,
and you can't get that lost sleep back.
And consider hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy is the most perfect tool
at retraining you to sleep.
You see, when you keep avoiding going to sleep
and keep stimulating yourself, you get into bed
and your mind is whirring, you're trying to go to sleep,
to fall asleep, but "falling" isn't a good word.
And when you're in bed, there's really nowhere to go.
But hypnosis can make sleep come to you,
stay with you right through the night,
so you wake up feeling refreshed, restored, rejuvenated.
We have some amazing sleep hypnosis audios
that can help you overcome insomnia
or waking up all the time, not getting to sleep,
not staying asleep, and having revenge sleep deprivation,
and seeing sleep as a chore.
My 'Perfect Sleep' audio will overcome all of that
and allow sleep to come to you, stay with you,
and get you excited
and thrilled about all the benefits sleep will give to you.