Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Bedtime procrastination

Bedtime procrastination:
What causes it, what are the consequences, and what can be done about it?

Overview

Figure 1. A person delaying sleep, such as using a mobile device, can lead to bedtime procrastination.

You wake up to the sound of your alarm. While sitting up you notice your body feels tense, and you continue to blink again and again, rubbing your left eye as you yawn. The monotonous voice of your tutor passes into your ear and out the other; you can not seem to retain any content. Why is this? As you yawn once more you think to yourself, ‘I should have slept earlier’.

Bedtime procrastination is a psychological phenomenon which stemmed from general procrastination. The concept developed as a result of the growing research into why people voluntarily decide to delay sleep, and the effects this has on the human body. Psychological evidence has argued that overwhelming, contemporary lifestyles has given rise to this behaviour, and although experiences differ, this becomes an issue when the temptations for leisure is prioritised over fundamental sleeping hours.

This book chapter will hopefully bring awareness to bedtime procrastination, and to accentuate the physical and mental risks when people employ this fixed habit into their everyday lives. From the use of smartphones (see Figure 1) to rumination as determinants, the chapter will cover relevant theories that attempt to explain the motivation for bedtime procrastination.

How deliberate, mindless procrastination and strategic delay are the key causes of this phenomenon (Nauts et al., 2018).

Add more info about psychological science and the role it plays in overcoming bedtime procrastination (sleep quality, self-control, mental contrasting).
Find the article where it mentioned university students are the largest sample to be affected by bedtime procrastination.

Case study: Vincent

Vincent is a second year university student. He currently studies full-time and works part-time at a busy cafe where his shifts are in the morning. When he gets back on campus he only has half an hour before his afternoon tutorial. Vincent decides to catch up on a missed lecture. After his tutorial, he goes for a quick gym session then makes dinner. Next, Vincent does the laundry and takes a shower. He notices that he has heaps of time left to study before bed, so he does his readings and watches the rest of the lecture. When he looks at the time it reads 11:30pm. Although he has work tomorrow, he decides to watch Netflix and draws simultaneously. By the time he goes to sleep, the time reads 2:35am.

Food for thought

How does general procrastination influence bedtime procrastination?
How do our experiences motivate us to sleep, or to delay sleep?
What occurs if an individual has poor self-control?
How can Vincent improve his current bedtime habits?

Introduction to bedtime procrastination

What is procrastination?

The general consensus of procrastination is defined as an illogical tendency to delay important tasks, which can negatively affect individuals or groups (Yan & Zhang, 2022). The behaviour is categorised as procrastination if there is constant delaying, or postponing of a decision; a lack of self-regulation is also believed to be a social determinant (Yan & Zhang, 2022). For a deeper understanding, see the book chapter on procrastination.

What is bedtime procrastination?

Bedtime procrastination is a certain failure in self-regulation where an individual excessively and voluntarily delays sleep, resulting in going to bed at a later time than normal (Nauts et al., 2018). The behaviour is a tendency to delay bedtime in order to experience some form of leisure, due to being preoccupied during the whole day (Nauts et al., 2018).

History

Modern society has broadened the access to technology which smartphones are the key factor to delaying bedtime (Suh et al., 2021).
The introduction of bedtime procrastination gave rise to a new form of procrastination (Kroese et al., 2014).
Bedtime procrastination is still considered a new area of research in psychology (Teoh & Wong, 2022).

Relationship between sleep and procrastination

Health behaviours (sleep) are an impression of poor self-control. Using the Bedtime Procrastination Scale, study revealed that relationships were greater between sleep and bedtime procrastination, than general procrastination (Kroese et al., 2014).
Significant associations between high bedtime procrastination and lower sleep quality. Individuals show a greater tendency to use evenings for their leisure and avoid sleep (Suh et al., 2021).

For author's own reference - advice from James would be helpful! I think I may be over the word count if I included this section, as I feel like I'm answering the question in other areas. Do I keep this?

Causes of bedtime procrastination

Procrastination can involve various predictors: external events, behavioural contemplation, and motivational or cognitive processes (Yan & Zhang, 2022).
A key study argued that there are three emerging themes of bedtime procrastination (Nauts et al., 2018).
To decide on an appropriate intervention, the cause must be fully understood.

Deliberate procrastination

Individuals note they that intentionally delay sleeping, which is the most frequent explanation for bedtime procrastination (Nauts et al., 2018).
People experience an 'enjoyment' feeling of postponing bedtime, as they believe they deserve having time for themselves (Nauts et al., 2018).
Integrate Temporal Motivation Theory (TMT) - people delay tasks (such as sleeping) if the outcome of the task is minimal, with no given reward or punishment immediately (You et al., 2021).

Mindless procrastination

Figure 2. Person overthinking causes delay in wanting to sleep due to negative thoughts.

Mindless procrastination is a different cause to bedtime procrastination; the delay results in people being distracted, or in common terms "loses a sense of time" (Nauts et al., 2018). This idea differs from delayed procrastination in that mindless does not intentionally postpone sleep (Nauts et al., 2018), and the absence of intention is important as individuals are extensively absorbed in a task (You et al., 2021). Being distracted is believed to be influenced by rumination; this concept is a maladaptive reaction involving a tendency to reflect on negative thoughts or experiences, which trigger involuntary arousal and distress (see Figure 2) (Takano et al., 2021). Additionally, as the maladaptive thoughts persevere, people struggle to sleep properly, and as a result, bedtime procrastination develops, especially through the use of mobile phones (as the use of technology becomes a tool for distraction) (You et al., 2021).

The Response Style Theory (RST) implies that those who experience rumination to a great extent, repetitively thinks about the causes and consequences of the unfavorable experiences which they failed to overcome, or were unable to remove threats (You et al., 2021). During these experiences the negative emotions are only given more attention, and as time goes by, people would rather deal with pursuing happy activities including chatting with friends or playing video games; therefore bedtime procrastination is considered a system of dealing with negative feelings (Sirois et al., 2018).

Strategic delay

Individuals who engaged in strategic delay experienced the need to sleep late so they can fall asleep 'more instantly', however research suggests this can possibly be associated with undiagnosed insomnia (Nauts et al., 2018).

Emphasise that there is difficulty in wanting to sleep earlier, even if people wanted to (Kamphorst et al., 2018).
High energy is felt when it is their supposed bedtime, or 'missed' the perfect time for sleep (Nauts et al., 2018).
Sleep Restriction Therapy (SRT) is a specific intervention for insomnia (Riedel & Lichstein, 2001).
Overall, there needs to be further research on the characteristics of strategic delay (Nauts et al., 2018).

Role of COVID-19

There is a growing belief that the rise and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced behaviour, significantly altering the general population's health and lifestyle (Meng et al., 2022). Some studies revealed that due to the unprecedented restrictions implemented by state and territory governments, the transition to sleep would be delayed by 30 minutes (conducted among Chinese participants) (Lee et al., 2020). This implies that the pandemic has majorly disrupted bedtime patterns caused by bedtime procrastination (Meng et al., 2022).

- For book chapter, include the specific behaviours that delay people into going to sleep.

Test yourself!

Consequences of bedtime procrastination

Since the 1940s, 40% of the American population have been noted to sleep for less than 6 hours, which is not the appropriate amount according to medical experts. [1] This leads to further complications as 90% of the population are not clinically diagnosed with a sleeping disorder (Ram et al., 2009). The effects of bedtime procrastination has demonstrated that this poses risks for poorer sleep quality, which individuals know that delaying sleep will yield negative outcomes, both physically and mentally (Teoh & Wong, 2022).

Figure 3. Sleep deprivation can lead to difficulties in normal functioning, especially when studying for exams or completing assessments.

Physical health

Sleep deprivation

The habit in engaging in bedtime procrastination results in greater outcomes of sleep deprivation (Nauts et al., 2018). Sleep deprivation is simply understood as not having the necessary hours of sleep, and the state can overlap into other bodily disruptions such as obesity and neuropsychiatric diseases (Kamphorst et al., 2018). The most common outcome of bedtime procrastination is lack of sleep, and it is not surprising to know that majority of people affected by this are those leading contemporary lifestyles (work, family obligations, social gatherings) (Orzeł-Gryglewska, 2010). Further, the greater a person decides to delay bedtime, the function of the body deteriorates, causing impaired awareness, vision difficulties, and slower reaction times (Orzeł-Gryglewska, 2010). One study discovered that when medical students were sleep deprived, their cognitive function became weaker, and those with poorer bedtime hours had received unfavourable academic results due to excessive smartphone use (Hamvai et al., 2023). Thus, it is evident that bedtime procrastination maintains sleep deprivation, through the performances of university students (see Figure 3) (Hamvai et al., 2023).

Obesity

In the United States, the number of obese adults are only increasing, with two-thirds of the citizens are or becoming overweight (Buxton & Marcelli, 2010). This poses further health risks including (but not limited to), diabetes and early mortality (Buxton & Marcelli, 2010).

On a long-term run, staying in bed for longer due to bedtime procrastination can increase chances of obesity drastically (Kühnel et al., 2018).
Read more about the role of the abnormal circadian rhythm causing people to have unhealthy eating habits (e.g eating junk foods late at night, skipping breakfast the next day).

Memory decline

Concentration and memory shortcomings are related to bedtime procrastination, as participants note that performing basic chores becomes difficult (Ram et al., 2009; Yan & Zhang, 2022).
Among verbal tests, sleep-deprived participants have trouble interpreting information, this focuses more on short-term memory (Orzeł-Gryglewska, 2010).
Not getting enough sleep and feeling restless during the day were signs of bedtime procrastination behaviours. This was evident from 25% of the sample having concentration difficulties and 18% were unable to retain memory during daily activities (Ram et al., 2009).

Mental health

Figure 4. Bedtime procrastination leads to various mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and stress.

Depression

Among university students mobile phone addiction was apparent, especially before bed which predicted depression/mood disorders later on (Geng et al., 2021).
Link rumination to depression as the disorder evokes negative thoughts and feelings (You et al., 2021).
Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) assesses depression symptoms from a previous week. High results demonstrated greater risk of depression (Chung et al., 2019).

Anxiety

Anxiety was measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory form Y (STAI-Y). Participants with higher scores suggests greater anxiety levels (Chung et al., 2019).
Bedtime procrastination becomes a barrier to successful performance, so lack of sleep hours increases anxiety (Yan & Zhang, 2022).
Anxiety influences all aspects of life (examples - lower test scores, weaker health, lack of job promotions) (Yan & Zhang, 2022).
The following day, individuals feel high levels of arousal, waking up early, then difficulty falling back asleep (Slavish et al., 2018).
The Internalisation of Conflicts Model involves negative affect controlling emotional arousal, and builds physiological hyperarousal (see Figure 4). As a result, this negative affect is the failure to fall asleep as a consequence (You et al., 2021).

Stress

Those who consistently delay bedtime know that although poor sleep leads to weaker cognitive function, the behaviour is maintained since it helps cope with stress. Emphasise that it acts as a coping mechanism (Chung et al., 2019).
External influences are major causes of stress, 'having time to themselves' repairs mood, and is a strategy for regulating emotion (Yan & Zhang, 2022).
Mention the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) (talk about its function and purpose).
Regardless if results revealed no significant differences for stress, the group with greater bedtime procrastination spent longer hours on social media (over 24 hours) (Chung et al., 2019).

Overcoming bedtime procrastination

Due to the continuing research into bedtime procrastination, there has been a growing awareness into understanding which strategies can help deviate people from the psychological phenomena (Kamphorst et al., 2018). Interventions have relied on classic health behaviour models including the health belief model (HBM) (McCabe et al., 2018). However, cognitive and emotional determinants have shown evidence in modifying bedtime procrastination, warranting researchers to implement more specific interventions (Hamvai et al., 2023).

Sleep quality

Define sleep quality as lacking in maintaining sleep, falling asleep, and the amount of times one awakens during sleep. Sleep quality focuses mainly on the hours spent sleeping during nighttime (Guarana et al., 2023).
Sleep quality is weakened due to people influenced by temptations (short-term feelings of happiness) (Guarana et al., 2023).
Studies have discovered significant positive associations, arguing that sleep quality and lower hours leads to individuals sleeping ineffectively (self-control is also linked) (Riedel & Lichstein, 2001; Guarana et al., 2023).
Mindfulness can reduce bedtime procrastination, but is still a fairly new concept in this area (Teoh & Wong, 2022).
Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire - positive associations from using this intervention predicted lower bedtime procrastination and improved sleep quality (Teoh & Wong, 2022).

Self-control

Individuals fail to control impulses, and are unable to prioritise sleep over staying awake (Guarana et al., 2021).
Self-regulation theory assists in decreasing undesired consequences (go into more depth).
Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT) has proven to discourage excessive media usage, and enhanced self-regulation. Involved psychoeducation, problem solving, etc (Geng et al., 2021).

Mental contrasting

Mental contrasting with implementation interventions (MCII) helps by combining goal pursuit and goal implementation. MCII attempts to change fixed habits, with research showing effective results in only three weeks (Valshtein et al., 2019).
Use an example of mental contrasting in Vincent's case study.

Self-regulation theory is also relevant here. Research has promising results in improving behaviours which can be challenging to control (sleeping earlier) (Valshtein et al., 2019).

Case study: Vincent

Over the next few weeks, assessments start to take a toll on Vincent, where he stays up every night to catch up. His mindset for delaying sleep is, 'I will have no time again tomorrow, so I will finish my night with one episode'. Vincent's friends notice he seems to "be out of it" during conversations, and seems stressed, always wanting to go back to his dorm. He has also been performing poorly at work; mixing up orders and spilling coffee on customers. (continue case study)

Conclusion

Bedtime procrastination stems from general procrastination due to the growing issues of people voluntarily delaying sleep. This area of research continues to develop.
Deliberate and mindless procrastination are the more leading causes of bedtime procrastination. Strategy delay is another element, but researchers argue this may possibly be more relevant to insomnia. The unprecedented global pandemic had potential for increasing lack of sleep.
Physical and mental health are both affected by the phenomenon. Cognitive factors such as memory decline can reduce performance; depression, anxiety, and stress is prominent, especially among college students.
There are different interventions to reduce bedtime procrastination. Most importantly, the strategy depends on the person's situation; mindfulness and CBT can overlap to improve self-control and sleep quality.
Mental contrasting is a contemporary intervention. Combines goal pursuit and goal implementation to reduce the gap between when one wants to sleep, and when they actually go to sleep.
Overall, studies have implied that those who have strong habits will find it difficult to change their behaviour. Especially those leading busy lives, as they strive for short-term satisfaction motivated by impulses and temptations. Eg, bedtime procrastination is not an easy behaviour to manage.

Suggestions:

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- The Conclusion is typically 150 to 330 words - What are the take-home messages likely to be? - It should be possible for someone to only read the Overview and the Conclusion and still get a good idea of the problem and what is known based on psychological science

References

Buxton, O. M., & Marcelli, E. A. (2010). Short and long sleep are positively associated with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease among adults in the United States. Social Science & Medicine, 71(5), 1027–1036. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.05.041

Chung, S. J., An, H., & Suh, S. (2019). What do people do before going to bed? A study of bedtime procrastination using time use surveys. Sleep, 43(4), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsz267

Geng, Y., Gu, J., Wang, J., & Zhang, R. (2021). Smartphone addiction and depression, anxiety: The role of bedtime procrastination and self-control. Journal of Affective Disorders, 293, 415–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.06.062

Guarana, C. L., Ryu, J. W., O’Boyle, E. H., Lee, J., & Barnes, C. M. (2021). Sleep and self-control: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 59(4), 101514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101514

Hamvai, C., Kiss, H., Vörös, H., Fitzpatrick, K., Vargha, A., & Piko, B. (2023). Association between impulsivity and cognitive capacity decrease is mediated by smartphone addiction, academic procrastination, bedtime procrastination, sleep insufficiency and daytime fatigue among medical students: a path analysis. BMC Medical Education, 23(537), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-023-04522-8

Kamphorst, B. A., Nauts, S., De Ridder, D. T. D., & Anderson, J. (2018). Too Depleted to Turn In: The Relevance of End-of-the-Day Resource Depletion for Reducing Bedtime Procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(252), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00252

Kroese, F. M., De Ridder, D. T. D., Evers, C., & Adriaanse, M. A. (2014). Bedtime procrastination: introducing a new area of procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(611), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00611

Kühnel, J., Syrek, C. J., & Dreher, A. (2018). Why Don’t You Go to Bed on Time? A Daily Diary Study on the Relationships between Chronotype, Self-Control Resources and the Phenomenon of Bedtime Procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(77), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00077

Lee, P. H., Marek, J., & Nálevka, P. (2020). Crowdsourced smartphone data reveal altered sleep/wake pattern in quarantined Chinese during the COVID-19 outbreak. Chronobiology International, 37(8), 1181–1190. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2020.1792486

McCabe, B. E., Troy, A. S., Patel, H. H., Halstead, V., & Arana, M. (2018). Development of a university campus Healthy Sleep Promotion Program. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 39(3), 264–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2017.1397231

Meng, D., Zhao, Y., Guo, J., Xu, H., Fu, Y., Ma, X., Zhu, L., & Mu, L. (2021). Time Perspective and Bedtime Procrastination: The role of the Chronotype–Time Perspective Relationship. Nature and Science of Sleep, 13, 1307–1318. https://doi.org/10.2147/nss.s313157

Nauts, S., Kamphorst, B. A., Stut, W., De Ridder, D. T. D., & Anderson, J. (2018). The explanations people give for going to bed late: A qualitative study of the varieties of bedtime procrastination. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 17(6), 753–762. https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2018.1491850

Orzeł-Gryglewska, J. (2010). Consequences of sleep deprivation. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health, 23(1), 95-114. https://doi.org/10.2478/v10001-010-0004-9

Ram, S., Seirawan, H., Kumar, S., & Clark, G. T. (2009). Prevalence and impact of sleep disorders and sleep habits in the United States. Sleep and Breathing, 14(1), 63–70. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-009-0281-3

Riedel, B. W., & Lichstein, K. L. (2001). Strategies for evaluating adherence to sleep restriction treatment for insomnia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 39(2), 201–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(00)00002-4

Sirois, F. M., Nauts, S., & Molnar, D. S. (2018). Self-Compassion and Bedtime Procrastination: an Emotion Regulation Perspective. Mindfulness, 10(3), 434–445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0983-3

Slavish, D. C., Sliwinski, M. J., Smyth, J. M., Almeida, D. M., Lipton, R. B., Katz, M. J., & Graham-Engeland, J. E. (2018). Neuroticism, rumination, negative affect, and sleep: Examining between- and within-person associations. Personality and Individual Differences, 123, 217–222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.11.023

Suh, S., Cho, N., Jeoung, S., & An, H. (2021). Developing a psychological intervention for decreasing bedtime procrastination: the BED-PRO Study. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 20(6), 659–673. https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2021.1979004

Takano, K., Iijima, Y., & Tanno, Y. (2012). Repetitive Thought and Self-Reported Sleep Disturbance. Behavior Therapy, 43(4), 779–789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2012.04.002

Teoh, A. N., & Wong, J. W. K. (2022). Mindfulness is Associated with Better Sleep Quality in Young Adults by Reducing Boredom and Bedtime Procrastination. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 21(1), 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2022.2035729

Valshtein, T. J., Oettingen, G., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2019). Using mental contrasting with implementation intentions to reduce bedtime procrastination: two randomised trials. Psychology & Health, 35(3), 275–301. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1652753

Yan, B., & Zhang, X. (2022). What research has been conducted on procrastination? Evidence from a systematical bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809044

You, Z., Li, X., Ye, N., & Zhang, L. (2021). Understanding the effect of rumination on sleep quality: a mediation model of negative affect and bedtime procrastination. Current Psychology, 42(1),136–144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01337-4

You, Z., Mei, W., Ye, N., Zhang, L., & Andrasik, F. (2021). Mediating effects of rumination and bedtime procrastination on the relationship between Internet addiction and poor sleep quality. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 9(4), 1002–1010. https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.2020.00104

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External links

Provide up to 6 external links to relevant resources such as presentations, news articles, and professional sites.

How many hours of sleep are enough for good health? (Mayo Clinic)
It goes by the name 'bedtime procrastination', and you can probably guess what it is (Scientific American)
What happens to your body and brain if you don't get sleep | the human body (Youtube)