Scrolling for revenge

Unsplash / Dipqi Ghozali

We all unconsciously sabotage ourselves in certain ways – sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small ways.

Have you ever sat awake in bed well past your bedtime, scrolling through social media or reading a book?  Researchers say that’s our way of taking revenge on the world.

Many of us have packed schedules and have seemingly little control over our time.  So, we sometimes regain that control through what neuroscientists call “revenge bedtime procrastination.”  It’s prominent among parents, shift workers, and people with high-stress jobs.  It apparently became especially common during the pandemic.

Other scientists also connect this behavior with a lack of self-regulation. If you don’t take time during the day to process your emotions, those moments before bed are when you can unwind and “process the emotional backlog from the day.”

(One solution is called a “Power-Down Hour,” in which you ritualistically take care of all the tangible and emotional needs left over from the day before heading to bed.)

But the broader point is that the reasons for this counter-productive behavior are highly emotional and almost entirely unconscious. Like a lot of similarly destructive behaviors, a lot of deep digging would be necessary to get the root of the problem – and possible solutions.