You get home late in the evening and decide to de-stress by bingeing your favorite Korean drama series on Netflix or firing up NBA 2K24 to shoot some virtual hoops. After all, you deserve a little fun after a long day of work. Maybe you’ll even spend an hour watching TikToks and Instagram Reels or adding items to your Shopee or Lazada carts. So, you put off sleep, and the next thing you know it’s already 2AM. But your alarm is set for 7AM, leaving you with only five (5) hours of sleep. This all-too-familiar scenario is the cycle of revenge bedtime procrastination.
This happens when people intentionally delay their sleep to “reclaim” a few hours of me-time and entertainment usually with their devices, as a response to their busy and stressful lifestyle. Rosalina Espiritu-Picar, MD, a Sleep Medicine Specialist at Makati Medical Center (MakatiMed), warns that revenge bedtime procrastination leads to poor sleep hygiene that makes sleepless Filipinos more prone to health woes.
“Those who don’t sleep enough, the first thing you’d notice is their lack of attention. It’s harder for them to stay awake,” shares Dr. Espiritu-Picar. “They tend to make mistakes. They’re clumsier, especially with regards to hand-eye coordination. They also tend to make poor judgments. They tend to become more impulsive in their decisions.”
The Sleep Medicine Specialist adds that insufficient sleep can lead to obesity and cardiovascular issues, elevated blood pressure and stress hormones, and compromised immune system, emphasizing that sleep sets off all the physical and biological processes in time with the circadian rhythm.
“What happens when you’re sleeping is repair, restoration, and recovery. That means your body uses that time when you’re asleep to repair damage and reduce the oxidants or the oxidative stress. It also tries to make sure that your hormonal systems are working well,” she notes. “When you’re sleeping, it’s also the time that your brain cells are actually forming and consolidating memories. That’s how important getting enough sleep every night is.”
This is why Dr. Espiritu-Picar underscores the benefits of preventing sleep deprivation by maintaining good sleep hygiene or a basic set of rules that help enhance sleep. So how do you improve your sleep hygiene, especially when oppas, TikToks, or virtual NBA teams are calling? Here are some tips:
Respect your rhythm. Dr. Espiritu-Picar shares that a consistent sleep and wake-up time helps regulate your body’s internal clock, or circadian rhythm. This makes it easier to fall asleep and wake up, leading to deeper and more restorative sleep. “It means it will really make you sleep and wake up at a certain time. So, the closer we are to that natural rhythm, the better,” she explains.
When deciding on a sleep time, remember that sleep requirements also differ per person, some need only 7 hours of sleep while others require 9 hours. How do you know if you’re getting enough sleep? The doctor shares it’s all about the amount of alertness or wakefulness you have during the day.
Create “personal time” before bed. Instead of scrolling, gaming, or streaming yourself to sleep, the MakatiMed specialist recommends carving out at least two hours before bedtime for calming activities such as reading an actual book, meditating, or taking a warm bath to signal to your body that it’s time to wind down.
“You need to set aside two hours before your target bedtime to dissociate from the day. Those two hours are your very important personal time,” Dr. Espiritu-Picar states, pointing out that you should be intentional on priming your body to sleep instead of scrolling and streaming as light from devices may also prevent you from sleeping. “We should consider this two-hour window as an integral part of our daily bedtime routine.”
Be mindful of your day. Dr. Espiritu-Picar emphasizes the quality of your sleep is also dependent on your activities for the day. “This is a great reminder especially for those with an inactive lifestyle or those who sit at work for hours: You have to earn your sleep. If you want to feel well-rested, you have to be active during the day. So, you must have regular exercise time and even sun exposure because that also helps to enhance your circadian system as well,” she explains.
Avoiding stimulants like caffeine is especially helpful if you already have trouble sleeping. Caffeine, which is not only found in coffee but also sodas and black and green teas, forces wakefulness even hours after taking it. “It’s not just volume, but it’s also about the timing. I actually ask my patients to just limit their intake to one cup per day and before 10AM,” the doctor advises.
At a time when after-work and late-night streaming, scrolling, gaming, and online shopping make people feel in control of their time, MakatiMed is here to remind everyone how catching more zzzs instead of spending a few hours of digital fun can help reclaim rest and improve overall quality of life.
Article based on the MakatiMed Health Vodcast’s “Lack of Sleep: All About Revenge Bedtime, Sleep Difficulties, & the Use of Sleeping Pills” episode featuring Rosalina Espiritu-Picar, MD last December 6, 2023.
Got sleep-related issues? Get in touch with us via MakatiMed On-Call at (+632) 8888 8999 or at [email protected], and we will lead you to the help you need.
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