Why Do People Stay Up Late? The Search for Personal Time

The Reason for Staying Up Late

Why do people stay up late? It's because the daytime world doesn't belong to them. They can only sacrifice their sleep to find a little bit of time that truly belongs to themselves. Otherwise, once they wake up, they have to go to work, and their time is no longer their own.

This is from a debate, which shows that in some cases, procrastination doesn't mean the task is difficult, impossible, or that people don't know how to do it. Instead, they just don't want to do it, don't want to spend time on it, or they have more important things to do or some personal obsessions.

Staying up late is like this. People don't want to exercise, don't want to move, and can't control themselves from eating a lot. Even if a task is very simple, they still don't want to do it and just keep delaying.

For example, I have a habit of scrolling through videos for at least an hour before going to bed.

You can say it's just a habit, and I should break it. But from another perspective, I need a period of time and space where I don't need to use my brain, think, or do anything, and just have some fun.

This can prove that I have my own time.

Because usually, my time is either spent on work, doing side jobs, writing articles, or doing other things.

This is the same as many people who want to play games after dinner when they get off work. They may not be really addicted to or love games. Just like many people who don't play games will go running, exercising, cycling, or fishing. The principle is the same.

Games can give people a sense of pleasure. Many people socialize, make friends, communicate, and look for a sense of identity and belonging through games.

The common thing about all these is that they are free from "utilitarianism" and are purely done for oneself, where one can find a feeling of self - existence.

The Importance of Positive Feedback

Some people may say that we can achieve this by doing other things, like creating value, helping others, and finding what we love.

Yes, that's right. However, life choices are conditional and diverse.

Take creating value as an example. There are two ways to achieve it. One is to have a strong sense of mission, and the other is to get sufficient feedback.

Take work for instance. If people get enough feedback at work, like getting bonuses, being recognized and encouraged by the boss, having colleagues' envy and support, and getting thanks from customers, many people will like their jobs and think what they do is valuable.

On the contrary, if after working for a day, months, or even a year, apart from the salary and normal bonuses, they get no other feedback. They may even be scolded by the boss, have disputes with colleagues, get involved in all kinds of infighting, be complained about by customers, and be scolded by them.

Even if they try their best to solve problems, they hardly get any praise or thanks. People even think it's their duty.

Moreover, they may have to beg customers for a high score or at least no negative reviews to get a good evaluation.

In such a feedback environment, how many people will be passionate about their work, have a sense of belonging, and think they have realized their own value?

Naturally, there are very few, or even almost none.

This is the reality. There is a saying: Power is the best aphrodisiac.

Why is that? It's because power can bring great satisfaction and a lot of feedback to people.

Actually, no one really hates being praised, respected, envied, or flattered. They just don't like the overly fake and obvious ones.

It's hard for people to resist such situations. Either someone needs to balance it, or they have to stay away from such an environment.

The Impact of Feedback on Behavior

Some people procrastinate or don't want to do certain things because they lack the mental strength. It's not that they can't do it, but they lack feedback and have suffered too many setbacks.

So, they would rather do some things that are easy but have no feedback, at least to make themselves feel comfortable; or they look for things that can easily bring positive feedback, that is, things with a high certainty of positive feedback, like playing games.

The same goes for chatting with people. If the probability of getting positive feedback in a conversation is low, gradually, the other person won't want to talk to you anymore.

This situation is also common in relationships. If one person often doesn't get positive feedback when chatting with their partner, gradually, they will stop talking and their enthusiasm will fade away.

Suggestions for Self - Improvement

If your income from all aspects is relatively low now, my advice is to find some things that you can do and that can bring timely and certain positive feedback.

Moreover, this thing should also bring you some small improvements, whether in terms of health, relationships, or personal abilities.

At the same time, you should quit some behaviors that are bad for your health but can bring positive feedback in the short term, like staying up late, overeating, and playing games all night.

Although these behaviors can give you a lot of excitement in a short time, they will damage long - term positive feedback.

In conclusion, we should correct the ways we get positive feedback or at least reduce the impact of negative positive feedback.

Daily Reading & Writing by Xiaolu 2025.04.21 [day595]