Real term with an actual study behind it. Originally from Chinese, "bàofùxìng áoyè," and a 2018 study by Kamphorst et al. found the mechanism: the more you had to resist doing what you wanted during the day (sit through a boring meeting, hold your tongue, push through tasks), the more likely you are to stay up late at night.

Self-control depletes through the day. By the time you're finally alone at night, there's none left to also make yourself go to bed. Your brain is reclaiming the autonomy it didn't get all day, at your own expense.

A few things I have heard works is:

• Writing down literally every thought bouncing around, no matter how dumb, until the list runs out
• Getting up and doing something boring in dim light instead of lying there fighting it
• Naming random objects in the room starting with each letter of the alphabet
• Not trying to sleep as it gives the opposite effect, wakes you up instead.

Not trying to sleep is something I feel works at least for me most effectively, I pretend it's not even nighttime and i have to do some work right now. Curious to know what works for others.

Your body's running on empty, but the second your head hits the pillow your brain decides it's time to replay every conversation from the last three years.

Starting this because I suffer from this a lot and couldn't find a place that's just about this specific thing: not general insomnia, not sleep hygiene checklists, just the "why am I like this" of being physically wrecked and mentally wired at the same time.

Curious what it looks like for other people:

• What time does it usually hit?
• Caffeine/stress related for you, or does it happen even on calm days?
• Anything that's actually broken the cycle, even once?

No wrong answers, just want to see how much this varies person to person.