'Bed rotting' is the new self-care trend young people are obsessed with
Although 'bed rotting' sounds pretty awful, I can assure you that it isn't.
The term happens to be the new self-care trend young people are obsessed with all over TikTok and social media.
'Bed rotting' isn't sleeping in dirty sheets and does not involve starving yourself to death.
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Quite simply, it means staying in bed all day in your own little cocoon.
Let's face it, the world can be a very dark place.
In the UK alone, we've got cost-of-living issues, housing issues and also mental health issues, to name a few.
But is there anything wrong with just lying in a warm, cosy bed on your day off so you can ignore, unwind and relax?
Well, on the one hand, Dr. Katrina Ostmeyer, Psychologist and CEO at Beyond the Individual LLC, says 'bed rotting' might actually harm your mental health as opposed to helping it.
"While most people enjoy a good lazy day, the new trend of 'sleep rotting' seems like a way to popularise a behaviour pattern that can be very harmful to many," she said.
"When we spend our days laying in bed and engaged in passive activities, we limit the opportunities to encounter reinforcement and meaning in our lives."
Dr. Theresa Marko, Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Orthopaedic Physical Therapy, also says: "Inactivity breeds inactivity—you will feel less able to perform movements the less you move.
"Prolonged lying in bed is not good for your muscles or joints; you start to lose muscle mass after a couple of days of laying in bed – this means that you become weaker."
On the other hand, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University, Dr Jessi Gold, has addressed some common concerns around the topic.
Taking to TikTok, he said: "I just learned this word, bed rotting, and apparently it's like you're so tired and so stressed out that you just don't leave your bed, and that's what you do to cope.
"I think a lot of us do that. We say I'm tired, because stress makes us tired, being anxious makes us tired, not sleeping because of both makes us tired.
"But while we need sleep we need to ask ourselves is the sleep restorative or avoidant.
"Are you sleeping because you don't want to be awake, because of stress and anxiety or the things you have to do, or are you sleeping because you actually need it?
"You don't always have to fight the urge to bed rot, but ask yourself why?"
Anish Vij