Do you lay in bed for hours with your phone keeping up with the newest “brainrot” paired with the seven-part Hailey Bieber drama? Were you one of the individuals that felt utterly empty after TikTok was banned for less than a day? If yes, you might be a victim to the newest “bedrotting epidemic” of this age. “Bedrotting” refers to the act of staying in bed for extended periods of time, often due to burnout or exhaustion. “Bedrotting” has a stigmatizing reputation around it. You usually can’t express the fact that you “bedrotted” for hours during a casual conversation with someone that you’re taking a class with, or perhaps working with. If it does somehow slip that you stayed in bed and scrolled on TikTok for hours, you may receive either pitying looks for seeming like you have no life, or judgmental looks because you’re perceived as lazy. You may classify yourself into one of these two categories, but I think that there is a lot more substance to “bedrotting” than just that.
Teenagers and college students are overworked and overwhelmed the majority of the time. As a freshman that attends UC Berkeley, I’ve never felt as much stress and imposter syndrome as I have during my time here. I encounter so many students like me taking multiple technical classes a semester and various time-consuming extracurriculars to keep up with the rigor of this college. That being said, people do various things and participate in many different activities to destress and take back control of their lives. People go to gyms to work out, or they catch up on reading new books, or they join a fun campus club to meet new people and try a new activity. These pursuits would warrant praise from others as they’re all good and productive ways to deal with stress. However, I don’t think praising one way to deal with stress should take away from the benefits that another way might give you. “Bedrotting” has a bad reputation, but I think it’s a very good way to decompress and allow yourself to reset before dealing with all of the difficult things in life that people usually deal with.
My experiences with “bedrotting” have usually been very positive for me. I’m sometimes exhausted both physically and mentally after some stressful work days at school, especially after midterm season. The way that I rest and recover after a typically stressful day or week is by staying in bed and scrolling through TikTok. My feed on this app is usually very humorous and relatable, which is what makes me laugh and destress for a while. It helps my mind and body recharge because I’m not actively thinking about the test that didn’t go well even though I studied for days, or the next exam that I have in two weeks. As someone who stresses constantly, it benefits me when I “bedrot” because I’m able to have time for myself to just reset. There’s also the fact that there’s something undeniably cozy and comfortable about being wrapped in your blanket and binge-watching your favorite show or watching the newest TikTok edits.
In my opinion, I take this activity as a form of self-care because I’m essentially shutting out the world for a bit to give myself some space to process my emotions. It helps me exist without overstimulation, and allows me to come back to all of my work and other worries feeling a little more refreshed.
While “bedrotting” experiences can typically vary for person-to-person, it isn’t always this stigmatizing activity the media and the world makes it out to be.