Is ‘Bed Rotting’ Good or Bad for Your Sleep?
“Bed rotting,” or staying in bed all day, has been touted as a self-care routine on TikTok, but it might actually make you feel worse. Here’s why that happens and how you can snap out of it
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The grueling stretch between New Year’s Day and springtime can seem interminable. It’s tempting to spend the long, gray months in hibernation mode with a book or your phone while you await brighter days.
Enter “bed rotting,” the Internet’s new favorite inactive activity. More entertaining than just sleeping in and somehow even less productive than being a couch potato, choosing to bed rot is a popular TikTok mental health trend associated with “reclaiming” time that might otherwise be spent on working, exercising, studying or other “productive” activities. It may mean you opt to stay in bed from sunrise to sunset for perhaps even a whole weekend or more, only leaving it to use the bathroom, get food or retrieve other essentials. Some “rotters” report feeling rejuvenated afterward. One Reddit user claimed three days of staying in bed had given them “the best mental focus … in about 2 months.” The post continues: “I felt as if my body was due for a massive upgrade I had been putting off.”
Some who choose to start bed rotting might find this practice restorative. But its ostensible benefits can backfire, mucking up the mind and body’s most reliable, natural method of resetting.
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Elective bed rotting is yet another purportedly wellness-supporting state of rest and relaxation that was spawned by popular online culture, like its social media sibling “goblin mode,” which…
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