Is rotting bed bad for you?

BUrnout is constantly increasing around the world – and people are coping in very different ways. Some cope with stress and exhaustion by watching Netflix shows, going to the gym, meditating, or doing crafts. As for the others? They try bed rotting.

O Tiktok Trend it is (generally) less repulsive than it seems; it simply involves spending the entire day in bed relaxing or “rotting away” as a way of decompressing from life’s stressors.

“In our society, there is an emphasis on productivity,” says Laurence Chan, professor of medical psychology at Columbia University. “And rotting your bed can be a socially acceptable way of saying you need a break and want to recharge.”

Resting regularly is good for you, but bed rot for too long or too often could indicate a deeper mental health problem. “It can be difficult to separate what is a self-care day from what is low or severe depression, and when should you seek help?” says Stephanie Preston, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan.

Moderation is key

If you only rot in bed once or twice a month to deal with stress, it’s probably an acceptable form of self-care that doesn’t harm your mental health, says Preston.

But if you find yourself lying in bed several days a week, she says, there could be a deeper mental health issue at play, like anxiety or depression.

Note whether the activity is affecting your ability to fulfill work, family, or school obligations, as well as whether you are having difficulty with basic hygiene. “You’re not showering, you’re not brushing your teeth, you’re not wearing clean clothes—that’s when you might suspect depression,” says Preston.

Bed rot can also be a coping mechanism for an anxiety disorder, says Chan. Someone with problematic anxiety may be using the self-care tendency as a way to avoid certain things in their life. This could “reinforce that it is safer to avoid the things we are avoiding, and then we may believe we are unable or incapable of dealing with them,” he says.

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That’s the problem with bed rot: While it may seem like an effective way to decompress, doing it too often or for too long will only make depression or anxiety worse. “While avoiding stress may feel good in the moment, prolonged avoidance is actually associated with long-term distress and greater dysfunction,” says Chan. In part, this is because we are sedentary when we rot in bed, and moving our bodies is essential for our physical and mental health.

The anxious generation

Many of TikTok’s rotten videos are from Gen Z users, a group born between 1997 and 2012. Research has shown that Gen Z is, in general, more anxious than other generations. Countless factors contribute to this growing anxiety, from the years-long COVID-19 pandemic to growing concerns about the cost of living and climate change.

“I think in today’s world, what Gen Z and later generations face is very different from what their grandparents and parents faced,” says Dr. Justin Kei, psychiatrist and medical director of the Medical Center’s outpatient behavioral health clinic. from Hackensack University. “So we should be aware that there is probably a reason why [bed rotting].”

The sleep connection

Spending a whole day resting can be restorative. But even if you feel relaxed during a lazy day, you could be setting yourself up for sleep problems that night — and for many nights to come.

“Our nighttime sleep is strongly influenced by our daytime behaviors,” says Joe Dzierzewski, vice president of research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation. If we spend too much time in bed during the day—even if we’re not strictly sleeping—we likely won’t get enough bright light, exercise, and nutritious meals at the appropriate time. All of these are “important daytime contributors to healthy sleep,” he says.

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Bed rot can also affect your sleep in the long term. When you spend time in bed without sleeping, “the brain makes an association that the bed is a place where you stress and worry, watch TV, study and do everything else except sleep,” says Kei. This behavior over long periods of time, he says, can lead to insomnia.

Some TikTokers who practice bed rot record that they nap during the day. Dzierzewski notes that to look for showed that weekend “recovery” sleep can actually help us recover from a sleep deficit from the previous week. But it’s important to “limit extra sleep to an hour or two on non-workdays,” he says.

How to rot in bed the right way

Some TikTokers tout the benefits of bed rot, mentioning how refreshed and recharged they feel afterwards. Others say they feel guilty or gross after spending a day or weekend cooped up under the covers. To be clear, there are much healthier ways to spend the day than curled up in bed. But if you’re going under the covers anyway, consider these tips.