For Baby Boomers, turning your brain off after work might have involved sitting in front of the television with a TV dinner and a beer.
For Gen Z and millennials, turning your brain off after work could mean participating in the latest TikTok trend: bed rotting.
Across the app, people have hopped on a trending hashtag dubbed #bedrotting to show how they “rot” — or stay in bed — all day.
Maybe they’re tired from a long shift at work or there has been a lot going on lately and they need a day off. Or maybe they’re depressed and struggle to make it out of bed in the first place.
Bed rotting usually entails snuggling or camping out under the covers, often in pajamas, with Netflix streaming on a laptop or TV for hours. People are often bed rotting while mindlessly scrolling on the phone.
The activity refers to shutting yourself off from doing any work or chores, as well as avoiding any form of socializing — all in the name of rest and self-care. Essentially, when you bed rot, you let yourself do nothing.
“Bed rotting is a trend where you kinda enjoy the time you have in your bed,” one video states. “Younger generations are embracing this concept of ‘soft living’ and being able to live a more stress-free life. It’s time with yourself and your loved ones in bed, and it’s intentional, so we’re definitely for it.”
Scores of TikTokers claim that bed rotting — as gross as it may sound — is a positive and a necessary form of self-care. To them, they’re allotting time to rest without any obligations.
Even some self-proclaimed experts on TikTok are advocates of the trend.
Vanessa Hill, a creator who runs a YouTube series about neuroscience and sleep called Brain Craft, posted a video on TikTok labeled “in defense of bed rotting.” In it, she argues that putting time aside every week — or even a little every day — to rest can be good for you.
However, bed rotting can become a slippery slope away from self-care and into self-destruction.
One TikTok user, Rhea Shetty, explains in a video how bed rotting can quickly turn into the opposite of resting. For some, doing nothing, remaining immobile and procrastinating all day may actually exacerbate anxiety and deepen depression rather than ease it.
“On the outside looking in, it looks like you’re resting,” Shetty says. “You’re laying in bed, you’re relaxing, you’re watching a TV show. But in reality, your mind isn’t resting at all. It’s running a mile a minute, thinking about all the things you haven’t done, all the things you could be doing right now… It means you don’t actually get rest.”
Countless videos involve people claiming they “bed rot” on a regular basis — sometimes every day. Whether it’s a habit spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic or simply a pastime shared by Gen Z and Millennials, nearly everyone on TikTok has admitted to doing it at some point or another.
Shetty argues in her video, though, that she’s gradually become aware that bed rotting is more harmful to her mental health than it is helpful.
“I’ve reached a stage in my life where rotting has become habitual,” she explains. “It seems like the most natural thing to do for me, but it doesn’t feel good anymore. It doesn’t feel good to never leave my apartment… or scroll for hours on TikTok, feeling my anxiety build up and not taking any steps to relieve that. I don’t know how to address it, but I’m acutely aware of it. I need to change. Because I can’t keep living like that — it’s literally eating up my brain.”
“Relatable,” one commenter wrote beneath Shetty’s video. “When you figure out what to do, let me know please because I hate feeling like this all the time.”
“Omg me for the past 2 weeks,” another commenter said. “It doesn’t feel good and I’m aware of it but it’s so hard to change it because it became a habit for me.”
Health experts note that bed rotting may be beneficial when people are under extreme pressure to be productive on a daily basis – and taking a day off to rest in bed can be a good thing.
Still, bed rotting extensively can be a cause for concern, especially paired with long hours spent on social media, which has been linked to poor mental health.
Earlier this year, the issue gained nationwide spotlight when U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory about social media’s impacts on young people’s mental health.
Additionally, Nicole Hollingshead, a psychologist and clinical assistant professor at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, wrote in a recent blog post that bed rotting can start out innocent enough — but then quickly slide into exacerbating depression.
“‘Bed rotting’ could start off as self-care to rest but then turn into fewer productive and enjoyable activities, more time on social media, more sleep issues and more social isoluation, leading to more depression,” she wrote.
In short, TikTokers will need to keep themselves in check if they find themselves bed rotting too long. As with most things, though, bed rotting is probably fine, in moderation.
Even some nurses and healthcare workers on TikTok have hopped on the trend, pointing out that after a long shift or a rough week, nothing is better than doing a little bed rotting with snacks to recalibrate.
