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By Katherine Bruce

Bedtime procrastination unpicked!

Are you a bedtime procrastinator? Annoying isn’t it?!

World over, millions of us are walking around sleep deprived for no good reason: exhausted during the day, but repeating the same pattern night after night. 

Bedtime procrastination is such an interesting phenomenon, that psychologists in multiple countries have started unpicking exactly what it means.

So in this, the first bedtime blog from Untired Me, we're simply exploring some of the experts' definitions…

Defining bedtime procrastination

Here at Untired Me, when we're explaining what we do, we generally say: 

“Bedtime procrastination is when you keep going to bed too late for no good reason.” 

Simple. But perhaps not very elegant!

Kroese and colleagues certainly put it better in a 2014 study, when they said: 

“Bedtime procrastination is defined as failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so.”

In a different study a couple of years later, Kroese (who has done a LOT of research in this) and team described it as: 

“Needlessly and voluntarily delaying going to bed, despite foreseeably being worse off as a result.”

Now, these two definitions are used everywhere from scientific papers to Wikipedia...and as quotes on Untired Me's social media pages!

But is it even called bedtime procrastination?

In a study by Paula Magalhães and colleagues, they use the term Sleep Procrastination, then go on to make a distinction between:

Bedtime procrastination: the behaviours individuals engage in before going to bed) 
vs 
While-in-bed procrastination: (the behaviours individuals engage in after going to bed) 

This is probably useful, because people often find they go to bed on time, but STILL find themselves going to sleep late because they get caught up scrolling social media or reading.

What about revenge bedtime procrastination?

If you’re down a 'How to go to bed on time' Google rabbithole, this comes up pretty quickly.

Apparently, the term ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’ was first coined in China. It’s sometimes called ‘revenge sleep procrastination’ and describes the behaviour of delaying going to bed in revenge for having no time to yourself during the day. That might be because you’re working long hours, but you also see it discussed a lot by parents (there are multiple threads on this in parenting forums like mumsnet.)

Different types of bedtime procrastination

One study by Saane Nauts and colleagues looked at how people explain what happens when they go to bed late. They found three types:

Deliberate bedtime procrastinators: People delay their bedtime because they feel they deserve time for themselves. (This would be the revenge bedtime procrastination group)

Mindless bedtime procrastinators: People lose track of the time.

Strategic delay bedtime procrastinators: People go to bed late because they think they think they need to, in order to feel tired enough to fall asleep. For this last group, the authors suggested that the issue might be undiagnosed insomnia.

There are also studies that explore which types of people are more likely to be bedtime procrastinators, from those with a late chronotype to those who are poor self-regulators…but that’s for another blog!

Bedtime procrastination around the world

As an area of research, bedtime procrastination is still relatively new. But now, researchers globally are unpicking and examining the issue, each looking at it from a different angle. The standard Bedtime Procrastination Scale, has been validated in multiple languages including English, Danish, Flemish, Spanish, Japanese and Polish.

Why is any of this useful?

It's easy for us to dismiss bedtime procrastination as some kind of daft personal failing. But researchers globally are taking it seriously, so it's safe to say we can, too! Plus, unpicking the concept can be a good starting point in unpicking your own behaviours and habits.