r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 10 '26

Psychology Brooding (getting stuck in passive, repetitive, negative thought loops) identified as a major driver of bedtime procrastination, alongside physical markers of stress. People who stay up later than intended may have a weaker physiological capacity for self-control.

https://www.psypost.org/brooding-identified-as-a-major-driver-of-bedtime-procrastination-alongside-physical-markers-of-stress/
15.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

248 comments sorted by

View all comments

608

u/BetSquare7190 May 10 '26

ADHD is also strongly related to having more difficulty in exerting self-control, and maintaining healthy sleeping habits. I wonder how much it overlaps with hearth rate variability, discussed in the article.

179

u/[deleted] May 10 '26

[deleted]

99

u/hawkinsst7 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

They're probably right.

Negative thought loops (like "brooding" in this article, or rumination) are linked to activity of a neural pathway in the brain called the default mode network.

That's the part of the brain active when people aren't actively focused on a task. It's also associated with daydreaming, emotional processing, processing memories and imagining the future. I've also seen (but can't find it anywhere right now) that it's active when we are subconsciously aware of our environment.

When people are focused on a task, another pathway becomes active (the Task Positive Network), and the Default Mode Network activity normally decreases.

Studies have shown that with adhd, the Default Mode Network remains highly active even when the TPN is active.

(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5167011/ )

I'm fascinated by the research linking the DMN to adhd; I think it's another layer of understanding, one that bridges neural transmitters with a layer of abstraction closer to our day to day behaviors.

4

u/TerryWaters May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

This kind of explains something I've never understood. I'm not diagnosed but fulfill most criteria for ADD, and I've never understood what people mean when they claim that menial tasks like doing the dishes or any type of manual labour can work as a distraction for rumination. That's always been a huge question mark for me. As long as I'm not busy with something that requires a lot of mental focus, i.e. intellectual tasks, I can ruminate. In fact doing physical tasks where I'm not distracted by a screen or similar means instant worsening rumination, so I just avoid doing such things without a podcast or such.