Where Do You Stand on Bedrotting—Agree It’s Great or Bad?

The term is receiving some buzz thanks to social media, but what do people in the mental health field think of it?

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Weekends are the usual time when people either catch up on all the chores they’ve neglected during the week or, according to a new craze, choose to engage in bedrotting (with 305 million views on TikTok)—remaining in bed all day or for two days, reading or binge-watching films or TV. Is it a new form of self-care, a bout of dismissiveness of life, or is it brought on by anxiety or depression? Maybe a bit of all these, but little research exists because it is so recent.

Is it “kid culture,” aka Gen Z, or a response to a Bizarro World spiraling out of the norm where stress mandates a new means to combat the pall of mental illness that hangs over all of us? Must it be viewed as unacceptable, or can we see some good coming out of it?

Is it OK to experience JOMO, the joy of missing out? Isn’t it OK to feel contentment by doing nothing but relaxing and enjoying some activity? People engage in knitting all the time, and do we say they are hyperactive? Do we pathologize it? Yes, some people, especially young individuals, might do bedrotting to excess, and, under those circumstances, it might show concern for how they’re doing.

How many of you in your early midlife stayed in bed on Sundays and read the huge Sunday newspapers? I know few read newspapers now, but many major cities had several Sunday editions with special sections on a host of things. I know it was one of my favorite weekend activities, and I read the New York Times—a Sunday newspaper that was hefty. Of course, the paper came out at 10 p.m. Saturday night, and if you were near a newsstand, you scooped one up before they were all gone.

Should we use other mental health self-care methods? Sure, we might do a bit of forest bathing, exercise, do yoga, engage in sports activities, or make bread. Every menu has a number of courses and dishes, don’t they? Life requires a menu, and mixing up what we do is probably a good idea because we know some of these help stave off dementia, facilitate our brain's maintenance of flexibility, and improve our mood.

Are you meant to feel guilty if your menu has a helping of bedrotting? Not unless you find yourself emulating one of the women in Grey Gardens. If it’s a special something that you do for yourself occasionally, like a terrific dessert, is that fine? I find myself asking far too many questions, and I beg your indulgence as I attempt to make my points while remaining impartial.

Bottom line: How do I feel about it? I think it’s a means of getting some time out of a harried life, and I can understand the need. If your house is on fire, you don’t sit there and look for a pot of water to put the fire out; you leave the house. Perhaps bedrotting is a bit of a sensible means of putting the internal fires out or at least dampening them for a bit.