Self-regulation

Why do we put off going to bed?

Kroese FM, De Ridder DT, Evers C, et al. · Frontiers in psychology · 2014

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

People who generally struggle with self-control are more likely to delay going to bed, which directly leads to getting less sleep and feeling more tired during the day.

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How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

SupportsSleep Architectureconcept
A self-regulation failure at bedtime predicted the same outcomes usually attributed to sleep need.
Short sleep is often behavioural rather than circadian. Bedtime procrastination — going to bed later than intended without external reason — accounted for significant variance in hours slept, daytime fatigue and experienced sleep insufficiency after controlling for other factors.
Evidence for the claim as stated.
SupportsSelf-Regulationconcept
Lower levels of general self-regulation are closely linked to bedtime procrastination, directly leading to less overall sleep, heightened daytime fatigue, and subjective sleep insufficiency.
Evidence for the claim as stated.

Study at a glance

Design: Cross-sectional — MTurk survey introducing bedtime-procrastination items and relating them to general procrastination and sleep
N: N=177 · 48.6% male; mean age 37.9
Population: Amazon Mechanical Turk adults
Outcome: Self-reported bedtime procrastination and its association with general procrastination and sleep timing

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Why do we put off going to bed?

These passages occur verbatim in the stored paper text. They support the points listed below; they do not verify every statement in the explanation.

177 participants analyzed in the final sample

Of the remaining sample ( N = 177) 48.6% was male, and the mean age was 37.9 years ( SD = 11.0).

A correlation of 0.60 between bedtime procrastination and general procrastination

Notably, the correlation between bedtime procrastination and general procrastination ( r = 0.60, p < 0.001) reflects considerable overlap but also distinctiveness of the sleep-specific type of procrastination and the general trait.

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Key findings

They found that bedtime procrastination was strongly associated with poorer sleep outcomes, accounting for significant variance in hours of sleep, daytime fatigue, and experienced sleep insufficiency even after controlling for demographics and general self-regulation. Specifically, bedtime procrastination was negatively correlated with hours of sleep and positively correlated with daytime fatigue and subjective sleep insufficiency. Additionally, bedtime procrastination showed a strong positive correlation of 0.60 with general procrastination, indicating they are related but distinct concepts.

Methodology

The researchers surveyed an online sample recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. After excluding individuals with sleep disorders or night shift schedules, they analyzed data from 177 participants. Participants completed self-report questionnaires measuring their bedtime procrastination, general procrastination, sleep outcomes, and self-regulation traits.

Limitations

Because this study used a cross-sectional design, it cannot prove that bedtime procrastination causes poor sleep; it is possible that being tired reduces self-control, leading to more procrastination. Additionally, the data rely entirely on subjective self-reports rather than objective measures like sleep trackers, which may introduce recall bias. Finally, the sample was self-selected from an online marketplace, meaning the findings might not perfectly represent the broader general population.

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