Yahoo Lifestyle Here's What Happened After I Tired the Viral "Hurkle-Durkle" Trend
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As a health writer, I try to stay informed about the latest health and wellness trends. That’s not easy because an array of new health hacks appear on social media every month. While many of these tips are nonsense (eating a stick of butter to feel full = harmful), a few actually have some science behind them (intermittent fasting = helpful for some people).
When my editor asked if I was interested in checking out hurkle-durkle, the latest sleep trend on social media, I was ready for the challenge. Who wouldn’t be up for an assignment that involved sleeping and had such a quirky name?
My mission, should I choose to accept it: Try to hurkle-durkle and report the results.
What is hurkle-durkle?
Yes, it sounds like a made-up term. But it’s actually a real word that originated with Scottish people who spoke Scots, a language that dates to at least the 14th century and is still spoken today. (Fun fact: You may have heard of the 18th century poet Robert Burns, who often wrote in Scots).
According to the Dictionary of the Scots Language, a modern compilation of Scots words past and present, hurkle-durkle means “to lie in bed or to lounge after it’s time to get up or go to work.”
Wait. Isn’t that just being lazy? Not really.
What happened when I gave hurkle-durkle a try
There’s really no prescribed method, other than lounging in bed after you’re supposed to be up and moving.
I chose a Saturday morning to start my “research.” That’s because, obviously, lying about in bed on a weekday — when most of us have responsibilities and obligations ranging from getting the kids on the bus to, well, going to work to earn a living — isn’t realistic.
The plan was to wake up whenever (without the alarm), and see what happened if I allowed myself to stay in bed for a bit. Of course, my two dogs weren’t interested in my work assignment. They enthusiastically demanded to be let out at their usual 6:30 A.M. wake-up time when their doggie internal alarm clocks went off.
After taking care of the business of the morning potty break and feeding, I crawled back into my nice, cozy bed. I plumped my pillow, snuggled down in the soft, clean sheets and began to wonder … exactly what I was supposed to be doing?
My mind was racing, going over all the stuff I should be doing (laundry, composing a list for the grocery store, figuring out what to make for dinner). Then I couldn’t stop focusing on how gross my mouth felt, so I had to get up to brush my teeth.
I got back into bed, feeling that I’d somehow already failed at hurkle-durkling. As a person with a never-ending to-do list and who isn’t good about “doing nothing,” I admit that I struggled to lounge about after my usual wake-up time without feeling like there were plenty of chores to be done on my rare weekend off. But I figured that guilt-tripping myself was what not at all what hurkle-durkle was supposed to be about, so I reassessed the situation.
I took a few deep breaths and began to look around my room. It was peaceful because the traffic on my usually-busy road was limited on a Saturday morning. It was gray but bright and pretty outside. The room was cozy and warm, and the morning light was softly filtered by the transparent drapes, with gentle shadows from the trees dancing on the walls. My dogs, who had happily piled back into bed with me, weren’t having any trouble at all hurkle-durkling. They snuggled up against my legs and snoozed off.
Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.
The biggest thing I learned after hurkle-durkling
So, is hurkle-durkle really just about being lazy in bed in the morning? Well, yes and no. Hurkle-durkle is a way to embrace self-care, a buzzy word we’ve all heard plenty about the past few years. But in a world where we’re always connected and always jumping to the ping of the latest push notification, spending a little quiet time in bed is probably a positive way to downshift from our usual flurry of activities.
Ironically, I found that I did have to “force” myself to relax for this experiment. But what I discovered is that hurkle-durkle is simply an exercise in mindfulness or living in the moment.
When I hurkle-durkled, instead of hopping up to tackle my never-ending list of chores, I indulged in the morning quiet. I took notice of things I usually didn’t pay any attention to, such as the pretty shadows on the wall, how restful my room feels and how soothing it was to have my dogs snuggle up against me. I felt grateful that I could indulge in self-reflection for a moment.
I presume that if you’re hurkle-durkling all the time (or dragging your phone into bed and doom-scrolling on it for hours on end), that’s not going to have quite as positive an impact as simply staying present in the moment without distractions.
But that’s just my experience; feel free to hurkle-durkle in your own special way, which essentially is the point of this exercise.
I ended up hurkle-durkling for about a half-hour (although, I won’t lie, it was a bit of a struggle at first). But when I did get out of bed that morning, I felt ready to tackle the day. I took a hot bath with my favorite bath salts, then started my list of “stuff I have to get done this weekend.” I felt productive and happy. The 30 minutes I had spent doing nothing seemed to have energized me in a subtle way.
Was there any science applied to this experiment? Definitely not. Will I hurkle-durkle again? Definitely yes. It’s not something I want to do every week; then it just wouldn’t be special anymore. Nor will I do it when I have a deadline or even on a brilliant summer morning when my garden is calling to me, and I’d rather be outdoors weeding and pruning.
But because I’m not good about giving myself permission to have downtime, I think an occasional hurkle-durkle offers an opportunity for me to live in the moment. It allows me to contemplate the good in my life, to listen to the quiet and to be grateful for the everyday beauty in my life (a warm bed! snuggly dogs!) that I don’t actively acknowledge on a daily basis.
Robert Burns was right: “Nae man can tether time or tide,” meaning you can’t stop time. But you can take a moment to appreciate what you have right now if you occasionally hurkle-durkle in bed with your best friends on a cold winter morning.
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