The Science of Bed Rotting…What Teens (& Parents) Need to Know

There’s a new thing going around with the younger generations. It’s called “rotting”, or “bed rotting”. It means to just lay around and do nothing but maybe scroll on your phone. It’s considered something to do. Back in my day (yes I’m that old) we were only in bed at night to sleep, for a nap Sunday after church or if you were sick, and if you were sick, you wanted out of that bed as quickly as possible. There were things to do, places to go, people to see, and chores, always chores. 

Some adults consider it being lazy, but others in the research field have found it’s actually dopamine depletion. The teenage brain is sensitive to dopamine because the reward system matures faster than the prefrontal cortex (impulse control). Add to that the fact that screens deliver fast dopamine hits with zero effort.

When dopamine is constantly stimulated:

• Baseline motivation drops

• Real world effort feels taxing and “too much”

• The brian starts craving low effort comfort behaviors

The couch or the bed becomes safe, effort free, and emotionally numbing which the brain craves after watching hundreds of SFV (short form videos) a day. The concern for someone like me, a clinician, is that this mirrors the early behavioral anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities) and learned helplessness patterns we don’t want in our younger generations.

Nervous System Shutdown

Teens today live with unbelievable academic pressure, social comparison overload, identity stress, and sleep debt. Parents are more involved in a high schoolers life than they ever have been, and each class is imperative for their college acceptance, high school has become mini college prep school so the pressure begins the minute 9th grade starts. And schools encourage this.

They are constantly seeing what their friends or influencers are doing, wearing, buying, and it leads to constant comparison of themselves to others. Constantly having to pick themselves back up and practice resilience, which is exhausting to the brain.

So when the nervous system stays in sympathetic overdrive (fight or flight) for too long, it goes into a kind of shutdown. Teens experience:

• Low energy

• Withdrawal

• Disengagement

• Numbing

• Desire to isolate

Then bed rotting then becomes the brain's way of self soothing. Not a conscious choice to stop and rest and pretty soon, the only way to soothe or comfort themselves is through going to bed. 

Avoidance Conditioning

If stress equals school, friends, expectations, conflict, etc and bed equals relief, comfort, escape then the brain learns “The bed removes threats.” This strengthens avoidance circuits and weakens distress tolerance, which is an essential part of adulting. Learning to handle and cope with our distress is vital to maturity.  

Over time, this can increase:

• Anxiety sensitivity

• Low resilience

• Reduced initiative

• Reduced confidence

How It Harms Cognition (The Science)

1. Reduced neuroplasticity

2. Circadian rhythm disruption

3. Attention fragmentation

4. Increased depression risk

How It Harms Physical Health 

1. Musculoskeletal weakness and atrophy

2. Cardiovascular deconditioning

3. Reduced lymphatic flow

4. Vitamin D and sunlight deficiency

So you can see it is vitally important for parents to set clear expectations around laying around and nonproductivity. I once heard it said “A teenager should only be home to eat, shower, and sleep, other than that they should be out living and exploring their world.” I love that, we focus so much on our toddlers doing this but we forget to remind our teens to do it as well. 

How you can implement this: Have a rule at home that bed is for bedtime, if you’re in bed, then there’s no phone, no tv, no music, you’re sleeping. It is difficult, and will take some transition time, but it can be done. 

This is another facet of parents not being home and working late into the evening and teens being unsupervised, we have got to be involved in the lives of our teens.