How long is too long to stay in bed?

When the house is freezing and it's still dark outside, it feels reasonable, even noble, to enjoy extra minutes in bed.

On TikTok, some people celebrate this pleasant morning walk as 'hurkle-durkling', referring to an old Scottish saying for spending inactive time awake in bed. Whether you want to crawl under the covers and hurkle-durkle – or, like some TikTok users, just seem to be happily enjoying saying the sentence — the trend reminds us that it's okay to reclaim some free time.

Why it feels so good to lounge

Staying in bed after waking up is appealing because we crave freedom of choice, says Eleanor McGlinchey, a sleep psychologist at Manhattan Therapy Collective and associate professor of psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Much like “bedtime procrastination” – the act of staying up too late to make up for the hours spent during the day working or caring for others – lounging around in the morning is pushing that “me” forward. -time before responsibilities creep in. Any parent can testify to how cruelly the veil between sleeping and packing lunch is torn. Who wouldn't rather have a cup of coffee and a soft pillow than the question: “Have you seen my football uniform?”

(Of course, the people who are most likely to need a hurkle-durkle are the least likely to be able to afford it.)

For those who do participate, it is important to set boundaries. Quality time for yourself can turn into something more harmful – like a mindless hour or even longer on social media (perhaps looking for more Scottish inspiration to stay in bed).

“For some people, picking up their phone, scrolling through email or turning on the news while they're in bed makes them more stressed,” said Dr. McGlinchey. “So now you've been lazing around in bed and feeling worse.”

So plan ahead how you want to spend your free minutes in bed.

“I tell people to be intentional about what they're going to do,” said Dr. McGlinchey. “Don't be dependent on reports that come in overnight. Use your time consciously.” If answering a few urgent emails from bed allows you to relax a bit without worrying about getting straight to work, that's a positive on balance.

“It's important to have a say in how your day starts, especially for people who, as soon as they get out of bed, are on call as caregivers,” she says. “But give yourself a certain amount of time. Log. Listen to music.”

People who suffer from insomnia or have other health problems that affect their sleep may try to go to bed earlier even if they are not sleepy, or lie awake in bed in the morning in an attempt to rest. But that can be a mistake, because “your body learns to lie awake in bed,” says Dr. Alcibiades J. Rodriguez, neurologist and medical director of NYU Langone Health's Comprehensive Epilepsy Center-Sleep Center.

Is there an acceptable limit for my lounging?

There's no hard and fast rule about how long is too long to crawl under the covers after waking up, but if this happens daily, 15 to 30 minutes should be enough for most people. “If you wake up feeling good and this is part of your routine, you don't have to stop,” says Dr. Marjorie Soltis, a sleep medicine specialist and assistant professor of neurology at Duke University School of Medicine. “But I think 30 minutes is a good threshold.”

Lying in bed is no substitute for sleep. “But you have to listen to your body,” she said. “If you feel better after getting some rest, you may get some benefit from that, even though it's not the same as sleeping.” People who can stay in bed without work or family pressures, or who need the extra time for health reasons, should do so without shame, experts say.

That even applies to bed rot, another TikTok trend with a less appealing name. Bed rot – when you lie in bed all day or even all weekend – can still be harmless in moderation. “If you want to stay in bed all day because you're feeling burned out, do that and don't feel bad about it,” said Dr. McGlinchey.

“But if you start to feel depressed or anxious or it causes you to be out of work and less functional, then you should withdraw.” For some people, staying in bed for hours or going back to sleep can be a sign of depression. You also need light exposure to maintain your circadian rhythms.

Overall, though, lounging in bed can be time well spent. Keep it short if you can and do something you enjoy. For healthy sleepers, Dr. Rodriguez said, “enjoying your bed is a good thing.”