Revenge Bedtime Procrastination
Etymology
An English rendering of the Chinese phrase 报复性熬夜 (bàofùxìng áoyè), "retaliatory staying up late." It spread widely in 2020 after a viral tweet by the journalist Daphne K. Lee explaining the term. The word "revenge" is the crucial insight: the late night is aimed back at a day that stole your time.
noun phrase · /ree-VENJ BED-tym proh-kras-tih-NAY-shun/
Staying up late to claim leisure time you were denied during the day, sacrificing sleep to reclaim a sense of control over your own hours.
What it names
A handle for a self-defeating but understandable behavior — trading tomorrow’s energy for tonight’s freedom, when the waking day left no room for yourself.
Example
After a schedule packed dawn to dark, she fell into revenge bedtime procrastination, scrolling until two just to feel the evening was hers.
Related idea
It is a special case of ordinary procrastination driven not by dread of a task but by hunger for autonomy — you delay sleep to buy back the day.