Gen-Zzzzz: Why young people are embracing ‘bed rotting’

The younger generation are reclaiming their rest. Photo / 123rf

OPINION

As an elderly millennial who watches TikTok the way God intended (once the clips are weeks-old and get reposted on to Instagram), I have only just become acquainted with Gen-Z’s latest trend and I’m here to say this is a bandwagon I am happy to jump on (slowly, because my back hurts).

“Bed rotting” is the act of doing essentially anything, but in the comfort of your bed, and for an extended period of time (we’re talking hours, if not days). A “bed rot” day is a day spent in bed, not necessarily napping but doing whatever feels right - watching movies, reading, scrolling social media, performing a 37-step skincare routine... whatever your heart desires. The idea behind it, as a piece on Bustle explains, is to “fully give in to any mental or physical fatigue you might be experiencing”.

Sign me up in a hurry.

The trend is dubbed the latest “wellness strategy” and has more than 200 million views on TikTok (many of those views probably from bed). There is nothing I don’t love about it: the absolute rejection of hustle culture, of busyness, the doubling-down on the post-pandemic Joy of Missing Out (JOMO).

Seeing Gen-Z embrace relaxation and days spent doing nothing gives me hope that we’re finding a much-needed sense of balance, away from the idea that we always have to be grinding, to be productive. The bed rotting trend shows that, as a society, we want to opt out of hustle culture. We don’t need more productivity hacks (we tried them all and they’ve let us very, very tired), we don’t need to always be optimising. We are post-pandemic, smack bang in the middle of a climate catastrophe, and we just want to chill out for a bit.

Millennials tried “doing it all” and it left us burnt out. Gen Z can see this and they’re not making the same mistake. They’re all about quiet quitting, soft living, bed rotting and just letting yourself be. It’s evolution, baby.

In a society that wants you to always strive to do more, to be more, to have more, it’s refreshing to see the act of simply resting become a trend. Particularly because, due to social conditioning, rest often comes with feelings of guilt attached to it (there’s always something else we feel like we should be doing). In reality, rest is essential to human life. In modern society, however, it has become an act of resistance.

Of course, TikTok being TikTok, the trend has been “aestheticised” and some people are finding subtle ways to one-up each others’ bed rotting, with the fanciest of bedspreads and PJs but, at its core, bed rotting is about nothing more than recharging your battery. It’s about normalising getting the rest you need, with no guilt or shame or without feeling like any hobby or activity you partake in should be some kind of marketable skill or something you do for self-optimisation or some kind of levelling up.

It’s no panacea, though. Like everything, bed rotting can benefit from a bit of moderation. As one doctor pointed out on TikTok, it’s important to balance out time in bed with other activities that benefit your physical and mental health.

According to Dr Jessi Gold MD, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Washington University, people should ensure they are balancing bed rotting with other, more active coping mechanisms, such as reading and running. The expert urges everyone to ask themselves “why” they are doing it and assess whether it is benefitting them (because not all rest is equally beneficial and some might not be all that restorative or even good for your mental health).

If you’re currently reading this in bed at 3pm on a Sunday, I salute you. Remember, we’re not lazy. We’re trendy.