Kroese et al. (2014): Bedtime Procrastination
Kroese and colleagues introduced the term bedtime procrastination: going to bed later than you intended even though nothing external stops you and you know you will be worse off. In a large Dutch survey, people who scored high on bedtime procrastination reported getting less sleep and more daytime fatigue, and the behaviour correlated with general trait self-regulation problems. The paper reframed staying up too late as a self-control issue rather than a sleep disorder.
| Citation | 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. |
|---|---|
| Study type | Cross-sectional survey study |
| Key finding | Bedtime procrastination predicted insufficient sleep and daytime fatigue, and correlated with lower general self-regulation |
| Sample | 177 adults in a general Dutch community sample |
What the study found
Participants completed a new bedtime procrastination scale, items like going to bed later than intended despite no external reason, alongside measures of self-regulation, sleep and fatigue. Bedtime procrastination was common, and higher scores went with fewer hours of sleep and more tiredness the next day. Crucially, it correlated with general self-regulation failures, suggesting the person scrolling at 1am is running the same machinery as the person avoiding a report, just pointed at the act of stopping the day.
Why it matters
Before this paper, going to bed late was treated as a sleep hygiene or insomnia question. Framing it as procrastination changes the toolkit: the problem is not falling asleep, it is starting the bedtime routine, which is mildly aversive and easily displaced by more immediately rewarding screens. That means procrastination tools, fixed cues, implementation intentions, reducing friction in the routine, apply directly, and later work has tested exactly that.
Caveats
This is a single cross-sectional survey of 177 Dutch adults with self-reported sleep, so it establishes an association, not causation, and cannot rule out that poor sleep degrades self-control rather than the reverse. The concept has been replicated and extended internationally, including work distinguishing deliberate 'revenge' bedtime procrastination, but experimental evidence remains thinner than the survey literature.
Peer-reviewed study in Frontiers in Psychology that introduced the bedtime procrastination construct and scale.
Related
Revenge bedtime procrastinationProcrastinating going to bed
Frequently asked questions
Why do I procrastinate going to sleep?
In this research, bedtime procrastination tracked general self-regulation: the bedtime routine is a mildly unpleasant transition competing with easy, immediate rewards like a phone. The delay is rarely about not being tired; it is about not starting the routine.