Sleepmaxxing & Bed-rotting: Internet Sleep Hacks & Radical Rest

Well, it’s official. Everyone everywhere is so stressed and tired all the time that it’s literally gone viral. You’ve probably noticed a crop of health influencers add de-stressing and sleep to their repertoire of advice and life hack reels. And you’ve probably heard the new vocab for where they’re going with it: sleepmaxxing and bed-rotting are now literal trends.

Read that again: the mere struggle to sleep is so pervasive in our culture that it’s now trending.

We are unwell. #stressydepressy 🫠

So what exactly is sleepmaxxing? Bed-rotting? Is this like the viral vagus nerve trend (read: total bs)? Or is there something to all of it? Let’s get into the details of this new corner of the cultural zeitgeist — where it’s from, where it’s headed, and whether we should pay attention or let another TikTok fad fade into the annals of ridiculous social media “health” trends.

Translating Viral Vocab: What Are We Even Talking About?

No cap — being stressed out and sleepless is so Ohio. Gaslighting your body into thinking caffeine is a personality trait? Skibbidi AF. You gotta get on the sleep grind; it high-key slaps.

Seriously, but wtf tho? *types the over 30 writer*

Social media is sort of its own dialect now, so some of it requires a little translation so we can, like, actually understand what’s going on.

Sleepmaxxing: Tips & Hacks for a Sleep Health Glow Up

Sleepmaxxing basically just means doing the most in order to improve your sleep quality. Most of it isn’t new (except for the mouth taping; that’s … interesting), but the vibe is #lifehacks — influencers offer tips for simple rituals, habits, and aids aimed to finally get you that full 8+ hours consistently. Cold bedrooms, magnesium mocktails and supplements, strict sleep schedules, and concepts like chrononutrition dominate the subject matter of sleepmaxxing reels.

FYI, chrononutrition just means tailoring what and when you eat in a way that maximizes metabolic health, gut microbiome, mental wellness, and, of course, sleep. There’s decent anecdotal evidence and a bit of clinical, too, behind this concept.

And apparently, the idea of mouth taping is that nasal breathing gets you more oxygenated, humid air and prevents snoring, which influencers claim revolutionizes sleep. This one is more … it’s really got nothing behind it. If you think about it, if you do have problems like nasal blockage, sleep apnea, or a deviated septum, mouth taping could actually be dangerous.

Bed-rotting: Escapism for the Absolute Mess That is Life

Bed-rotting is kind of the opposite of sleepmaxxing, but it’s all coming from the same place. Bed-rotting, also called radical rest, is a self-care concept about taking back the bedroom as somewhere that’s actually restful. But not because of sleep — it’s about stress and self-care. You deliberately spend hours in bed scrolling reels and binge-watching comfort shows to avoid the social pressures that prioritize productivity way past the point of burnout.

But if you think about it, this particular trend is a huge red flag. These behaviors fall well within typical signs of depression, and being so fatigued that you can spend all day in bed without going insane is a sign of poor sleep hygiene and health. The whole idea is a reflection of society-wide burnout from chronic stress, and the fact that it is universal across generations is unnerving, to say the least.

Where the Science Supports or Negates TikTok’s Health Advice

The real issue with social media is the almost binary nature of it all. You’re either doing the most — first hustle culture, now sleepmaxxing, or you’re straight up dissociating — first digital detox, now bed-rotting. So, is there anything to either of these trends? And if not, we're still in here tryna get some sleep. How do we do that?

The concept of sleepmaxxing has overlapping implications:

Yay Nay

Sleep hygiene — keeping a consistent routine, a cool, dark bedroom, ditching the screens an hour before bed, not eating a big meal late — these are all things supported by organizations like the CDC and the Sleep Foundation. These are low-risk, high-reward habits that are tried and true. Extreme hacks — mouth taping, the bizarre notion that sound baths can heal the pineal gland, or stacking a bunch of supplements without understanding dosage, interactions, or why your sleep is messed up in the first place — these aren’t supported by sleep experts or the scientific literature.

You know what has been recorded in the literature, though? The risks of getting so into your sleep quest that you develop orthosomnia, where the obsession with perfect sleep metrics from your devices and apps causes anxiety and actually exacerbates the insomnia you’re trying to quell.

The concept of bed-rotting is also conflicting:

Yay Nay

There’s a good body of evidence that investing time in relaxation has positive effects on stress and, subsequently, sleep. A brief mid-afternoon nap, a little floor time in the evenings, or taking a bit to sit in a quiet room and read or just exist are all generally positive ways to unplug from the chaos and give your mind and body time to recover and rebalance. Spending long stretches of the day in bed can actually exacerbate your sleep problems by disrupting your circadian rhythm. Nothing wrong with having a lazy weekend, but if you’re bed-rotting chronically to dissociate from the noise — that’s not restorative, structured rest; it’s just avoidance, and it’ll do more harm than good to your stress levels and sleep problems.

Again — you know what the science actually says about long stretches in bed and circadian rhythm disruption? Increased rates of depression and an increased risk of morbidity in some contexts. RIP. 🪦

So, again, everything in moderation. We need to ditch the extremes and travel closer to the middle of the spectrum and ride the balance of putting effort into managing stress and sleep without doing the most.

Considering Science-Supported Stress & Sleep Hacks: Adaptogens & Nootropics

We need to level up our game when it comes to life hacks for managing stress and unlocking the door to restorative sleep — without leveling up our pathological need to hashtag everything — so the algorithm can shove it down your throat for months. Luckily, there’s a new health and wellness trend that really can support both things and has clinical data to back it up: adaptogens and nootropics. A productivity and mood-enhancing supplement that actually works, the adaptogen stack in MTE promotes stress resilience, energy, and performance while nootropics synergistically support mood, cognition, sleep, and recovery. And you don’t have to take an influencer’s word for it:

Powerhouse Adaptogens Beat Bed-rotting All Day Long

Adaptogens support stress resilience by influencing the HPA axis — the control center that delegates stress responses. Promoting positive, balanced neurotransmitter production and signaling while fighting inflammation boosts immunity and energy. Being stressed is expensive to the body; if you can quiet stress responses and the complications they cause, you have all these new resources freed up. Less stress, less anxiety, more positive vibes.

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is the absolute GOAT of adaptogens. A 2024 review of the literature cited studies that found this stress-busting adaptogen:

• Reduced time to fall asleep and increased sleep duration after caffeine-induced insomnia.
• Increased time spent in REM and deep sleep stages.
• Suppressed GABA antagonists (read: things that stop GABA — the calm-down chemical — from doing its job.

Eleuthero

Also known as Siberian ginseng, this Panax cousin was recognized by the WHO “As a prophylactic and restorative tonic for enhancement of mental and physical capacities in cases of weakness, exhaustion and tiredness, and during convalescence.” And the body of studies behind eleuthero indicate this adaptogen has:

• Improved athletic and cognitive performance under stressful conditions
• Regulated blood pressure and cholesterol with reported improvements in quality of life
• Suppressed organ damage due to chronic stress-induced toxicity

Game-Changing Nootropics Boost Healthy Sleep Habits

Nootropics are also known as “smart drugs” because they’re thought to boost cognition, and there’s also evidence that points to sleep support, mood health, and recovery. It’s sort of a feedback loop: optimizing sleep helps your body bring itself back into homeostasis by giving it time to repair damage, regulate hormones, and get your circadian rhythm back on track. The natural consequences are the ability to think clearly and be in a decent mood, even if you are stressed.

Saffron

Saffron is a nootropic for mood and sleep. In some form or another, saffron has been a part of the human experience for, like, 50,000 years. Seriously. For the last few centuries in the West, it’s just been an expensive spice. But we’re finally rediscovering why this little orange stigma has such staying power. Studies have observed saffron supplements:

• Raise motivation and chronic low mood with the same efficacy as a common SSRI.
• Increase levels of free dopamine.
• Improve mood in healthy adults with occasional stress/anxiety and improve sleeplessness.

GABA

GABA is a native nootropic compound, meaning it’s something our body produces and uses. It’s the body’s main calm-down chemical; it tells overexcited neurons to cool it so you can stop overthinking and just chill out. Studies on supplementing with GABA have shown that:

• Sleep latency and lower short-term stress levels fall.
• The ability to plan and prioritize improves.
• Growth hormone levels increase.

Even better news, studies on these adaptogens and nootropics haven’t observed toxicities; they have little to no side effects in healthy adults. Though, as always, you should consult with your doctor before adding a supplement to your daily routine. The great thing about MTE, though, is that it replaces 10 supplements with each of its 10 bioactive ingredients. No more shoveling handfuls of horse pills and gagging while you wonder if they’re doing anything, because this one does.

It’s a strange age where everything’s either empty or excess, with no in-between. We need to get off the hamster wheel and touch some ground. And a 2-minute daily habit can completely revamp your days, nights, and quality of life with ingredients actually supported by science? Sounds like a real-life hack to us.