Bed Rotting Is A Symptom Of A Depressed Society

“Bed rotting is about to steal your weekend,” Vogue India headlined a recent article about how weekends were once for outings with friends. But now people “count down to the duvet cocoon, phone balanced on chest, snacks within reach, and the comforting illusion of rest.” Indeed, while our parents’ generation got fresh air and socialized face-to-face with friends and, imagine this, strangers, a significant portion of Gen Z chooses to rot in bed.

Nearly half of Zoomers say they bed rot “often” or “sometimes,” which translates into roughly 498 hours annually spent doomscrolling on social media or streaming shows and movies. Why? According to a recent study, nearly three in five Americans believe bed rotting is actually self-care. But younger generations may be more self-aware than we give them credit for. In that same study, surveyors found that nearly 75% of Gen Z respondents think bed rotting is actually maladaptive for their demographic.

Chronic bed rotting is just a trendy rebrand of depressive behavioral patterns that stem from being emotionally, hormonally, and spiritually depleted.

And they’d be right. Chronic bed rotting is just a trendy rebrand of depressive behavioral patterns that stem from being emotionally, hormonally, and spiritually depleted. If you need a bed to feel safe, it’s not rest you’re craving—it’s the stability of true mind and body regulation many have traded away for modern creature comforts like ultra-processed foods and unlimited social media stimulation. We don’t have to live this way.

We Lost the Plot When “Rot” Became “Self-Care”

In early 2025, bedding and loungewear company Cozy Earth launched a challenge that went viral on TikTok: enlist contestants in a six-day competition where they faced off to spend the longest time in bed and participate in reality TV–style challenges. Contestants couldn’t shower, had to brush their teeth and eat in bed, and could only get up to use the bathroom—all to win the grand prize of $25,000.

Their call for contestants, of course, was on TikTok, and after the series saw millions upon millions of impressions, the brand went through with a third season. “Reality” challenge shows always aim to push boundaries for views, and while some could watch Cozy Earth’s self-admittedly “tongue-in-cheek” Bed Rot Challenge and laugh it off as lighthearted content, others—like myself—find the concept depressing and indicative of a truly lamentable trend to accept sloppy, lazy behavior.

If small-scale surveys are to be at all indicative of larger cultural trends, we should be concerned that 57% of Gen Z and millennials have admitted they’ve canceled plans to stay under covers, and worse, the same amount reportedly have taken a sick day or even PTO just to spend it rotting in bed.

But concern aside, it’s actually unsurprising that admitting to maladaptive bed rotting practices has become commonplace, since popular culture has trained young people to believe that laziness is liberation, that it’s empowering to disengage. We’ve puzzlingly reframed inertia as a form of resistance. No, you’re not checked out, you’re just “resting.”

It’s a slow decay disguised as empowerment.

We’ve been told that hustle culture was the enemy, and in some ways, it really is, but the pendulum has now swung so far that sloth-like behaviors have been given a new marketing sheen as self-care. Women are told they can be healthy at any size, that motivation is toxic, and that comfort is the highest virtue. But the truth is that real rest doesn’t make you any smaller or weaker; it makes you more alive. The version being sold to Gen Z is the opposite; it’s a slow decay disguised as empowerment.

Look, I love relaxing on the sofa with my husband and watching a movie or wearing my athleisure as much as the next Gen Z woman, but when I drive by middle and high schools and see students wearing literal pajamas to class, it’s hard not to feel like younger generations have given up on any sense of decorum. And yet, they’re not entirely to blame. This is the predictable outcome of a culture that has made overstimulation and malnourishment our baseline state.

Young Americans Are Sleep-Deprived, Nutrient-Deficient, and Hormone-Dysregulated

We can’t question bed rotting without first questioning what’s fueling it, or rather, what’s not fueling it. American kids and young adults are running on diets composed mostly of ultra-processed foods. A serial cross-sectional study found that from 1999 to 2018, the total calorie consumption of young people from ultra-processed foods increased from 61.4% to 67%.

This means that the average teenager’s body is built on Takis, Eggo waffles, Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Cup Noodles, Lofthouse Frosted Sugar Cookies, Tyson Dino Nuggets, and Monster Energy drinks.

These are edible dopamine hits. They’re cheap, fast, shelf-stable, but nutritionally bankrupt. We know they spike blood sugar, flood dopamine receptors, and leave bodies more tired and less nourished than ever before. The result? A generation that’s both wired and wiped out, overstimulated by devices, under-fueled by real food, and chemically struggling to self-regulate.

We're seeing a generation that’s both wired and wiped out, overstimulated by devices, under-fueled by real food, and chemically struggling to self-regulate.

And that’s before we even factor in the hormonal chaos caused by birth control, endocrine disruptors in practically every step of our lives, and chronic sleep deprivation from blue light exposure. Studies show that as many as 80% of teens aren’t getting enough sleep, and sadly, the ones who are awake are often glued to screens within minutes of opening their eyes. To add insult to injury, caffeine often replaces breakfast, pretty (but pretty ineffective) melatonin supplements replace a healthy nighttime routine, and then the body never catches up.

Yes, when you combine nutrient deficiencies, dysregulated hormones, and constant digital stimulation, what you get isn’t intentional laziness. You get the potential for system collapse. Bed rotting, therefore, is more like triage than indulgence. It’s the body pleading for safety and silence after years of running on fumes.

Your Body’s Collapse Is Being Marketed as Empowerment

Somewhere along the way, the language of wellness also became the language of avoidance. “Listen to your body” turned into “give up whenever facing discomfort.” Depression was renamed “bed rotting,” binge eating became “intuitive eating,” and overstimulation became “self-care.”

Platforms like TikTok and Instagram are, in part, to blame for turning exhaustion into a trendy, adoptable aesthetic. People will admit, with heart-eyes and all, that they were “literally born to be a homebody… like rotting in bed all day watching anime or dramas is the lifestyle 😌🩷 when I’m hungry? I just get up, make an iced coffee or matcha latte and come back to bed like nothing happened 😭 my iPad is literally my lifeline—I don’t know how people survive without one 💭.”

The Instagram user went on to say in the caption, “Honestly I love this life. This is exactly how I’m spending half of my summer 🍉.”

Or when it’s “Wellness Wednesday Bed Rot Edition,” which one user says is “most likely my favorite edition 🙈,” they’ll post day-in-the-life-style bed rotting content that certainly is meant as inspiration for viewers.

“Yes, bed rotting is what you think it is. Spending the whole damn day in bed! Drop those babies off at school, grab a Starbucks or whatever, and climb back into bed! Spend the day relaxing, snacking, reading, or watching crappy TV,” captioned this Instagram user. “But ultimately, you do you, boo. This whole idea is meant to be about you relaxing, ignoring the housework, pretending you don’t have a mountain of laundry, and just switching off!”

The message is clearly heard by consumers: Don’t fix your exhaustion, just curate it!

When we celebrate dysfunction as identity, we make recovery feel like it’s optional.

This may seem harmless, but it’s really not. When we celebrate dysfunction as identity, we make recovery feel like it’s optional. We stop seeking balance and start seeking validation for our own self-destruction. What was once an internal signal—your body telling you it’s tired, disconnected from reality, or undernourished by a poor diet—has instead become “relatable” social content.

And to me, the worst part isn’t the aestheticization and romanticization of it all. I take issue with the moral confusion at play. True rest is an act of stewardship for yourself. You need to be honoring your body and making sure as many actions as possible are those that glorify a higher purpose. Bed rotting, on the other hand, comes off as a slow surrender to the very forces that make us sick in the first place: crappy food, digital addiction, and emotional numbness. The same culture that drained us now sells us the new language du jour to justify just staying that way.

The Real Fix Isn’t Rotting, It’s Ritual

Truly, the solution isn’t more grind culture. Hustling is antithetical to a woman’s optimal functioning, but we also can’t outright give up and romanticize collapse. What modern women need is ritual; the kind of ordinary, soothing routines that bring our nervous systems back to life.

True rest has a blissful rhythm to it. It sounds like folding warm laundry while your favorite music plays, lighting a candle before dinner, cooking a real meal instead of ordering DoorDash, or walking around the block to reset your circadian clock. True rest replaces “rot” with ritual—something our ancestors have known for all time that grounds the body instead of sedating it.

Our grandmothers didn’t need to bed rot because they practiced these restful rhythms instinctively. Yet they didn’t aestheticize it, bottle it up, and sell it as “wellness.” They just called it living. Today, we outsource those same rituals to influencers and apps, hoping to throw money at a program for a sense of calm we could easily reclaim in our own homes.

If the modern woman’s body is screaming for rest, the answer is not a 12-hour Netflix binge. The answer is learning to rest in ways that return you to reality and pull you closer to living.

The sense of calm I feel today, compared to what I felt half a decade ago, is astonishing to me. And yet, my responsibilities have only doubled, perhaps even tripled. When I spent more time on X (then known as Twitter) in an attempt to boost my social following so my writing could garner more clicks, I too often found myself trading meaningful social interaction and actual rest for discourse chasing and scrolling through headlines.

It took a really hard conversation with my husband, who has long been a source of reason for me within a deeply narcissistic world, for me to realize that, while my intentions were somewhat noble, I was on a path toward burnout. And I really felt it. I could say, “I don’t know how I tweeted that much,” or “I don’t know how I wrote that many articles,” but I do know: I neglected many relationships, took too many shortcuts in daily life, and barely gave myself a second to breathe.

But I also realized that the cure for depletion isn’t surrender or indulgence; it’s intentional nourishment of the body and soul. Start simple: with sunlight, quality protein, prayer if you’re into that kind of thing, and maintaining an orderly environment. You’ll find that the desire to disappear under a blanket starts to fade when your body finally believes it’s safe. Slow down, yes, but don’t stagnate.

If the modern woman’s body is screaming for rest, the answer is not a 12-hour Netflix binge. The answer is learning to rest in ways that return you to reality and pull you closer to living.

Rest Was Never Meant To Look Like This

We were never meant to spend our youth dissolving into screens and crumbs on a comforter. Women are wired for rhythm—for tending, creating, and restoring—and that’s a beautiful prospect to take pride in. If we want to build a generation that feels grounded again, we’ll have to do the hard work in choosing meaning over mood, nourishment over trendy novelty, and real rest over the illusion of it.