What is bedtime procrastination?

© Hello Giggles

Leviathan Press:

Intuitively, we seem to regard browsing our phones in our spare time as a way to relax ourselves, especially when we lie in bed after a busy day at get off work, even if we watch a few boring short videos, we have every reason to tell ourselves: only this time is truly mine. But in fact, over-reliance on mobile phones and other electronic products may do more harm than good to your body and mind (mobile phone addiction is positively correlated with depression and anxiety). If you have reached a state where you can't fall asleep without browsing your phone for a few hours before going to bed, you should be alert to the negative effects of this in the long run.

(www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.669042/full)

Although "revenge sleep procrastination" may touch your heart, for the sake of your own health, please look at the issue of sleep rationally.

I fall asleep in a moment. I send a message - then check Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Anyway, my phone is still in my hand, so it doesn't hurt to check a few more messages. In the blink of an eye, an hour has passed, or even two hours, or three hours. Oh, I missed my bedtime perfectly.

Are you familiar with this scene? In fact, this phenomenon has already had a name a few years ago.

It's called "bedtime procrastination ," which refers to the phenomenon of procrastinating before going to bed, which often leads to insufficient sleep. The term was first used in 2014 by Floor M. Kroese, a social behaviorist from the Netherlands. Its official definition at the time was as follows: First, the time to fall asleep is significantly extended. Second, there is no actual reason as a motivation to stay up late. Third, it is aware that delaying sleep may have negative consequences.

(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4062817/)

© Hypnotherapy Cardiff

Of course, you don’t necessarily need a smartphone to avoid sleep. The same effects can occur when you’re glued to your TV or computer screen — maybe you’re bingeing episode after episode of a TV series, for example, or can’t get enough of your video game. Many other activities, in theory, would also prevent people from staying in their beds, like reading a book or exercising.

However, this phenomenon has only surfaced with the popularization of televisions, computers, and smartphones, leading experts to hypothesize that electronic products, and the entertainment they provide, have played a major role in the emergence of this phenomenon.

It’s unclear how common sleep procrastination is, because there are no definitive studies on the subject. But one of the few studies, a 2014 paper published online by Cross and her colleagues, suggests at least that the behavior is likely widespread. Many respondents reported feeling tired during the day more than two days a week. And a large number of respondents who went to bed later than they wanted to more than one day a week rated their behavior as problematic.

The data from the US confirms that sleep procrastination is not unique to the Dutch. A 2018 study, published in Frontiers in Psychology by psychologist Jana Kühnel of the University of Vienna and colleagues, shows that sleep procrastination is also prevalent in Germany. According to the study, German and Dutch respondents were surprisingly consistent in their frequency of delaying sleep. It's hard to draw any conclusions at this point, however: The survey was not a representative sample of all groups, Kühnel explained.

(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29456519/)

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Although the amount of sleep required by each individual varies greatly, sleep researchers recommend that adults get 7 to 9 hours of adequate sleep per night. Compared with this standard, nearly half of Germans aged 18 and over do not get enough sleep, according to a 2021 survey of 1,000 respondents organized by the statista global consumer survey.

About two-thirds of the respondents sleep an average of 5 to 7 hours on weekdays. Only 15% of the respondents sleep 7 to 8 hours per night. Only 3% sleep more than 8 hours on weekdays. Not only that, children and teenagers are also not getting enough sleep, the German Foundation for Children's Health sighed in a statement drafted in March. One in eight teenagers aged 12 to 17 suffers from chronic sleep deficiency, while the recommended sleep duration should be 8 to 10 hours.

(de.statista.com/infografik/25655/umfrage-zu-schlafdauer-und-schlafproblemen-in-deutschland/)

There are many reasons for not getting enough sleep. According to the German Sleep Association (DGSM), 20 to 30 percent of German citizens suffer from intermittent sleep disorders, and 6 percent of the German population suffers from chronic sleep disorders. However, the rest have a variety of other reasons, including factors that can affect themselves. In a 2017 German survey, the most common reason for delaying bedtime was nightly media consumption. These respondents actually wanted to go to bed earlier , so their behavior was classified as sleep procrastination.

(www.tk.de/resource/blob/2033604/118707bfcdd95b0b1ccdaf06b30226ea/schlaf-gut-deutschland-data.pdf)

Sleep procrastination is sometimes called " revenge sleep procrastination ," a term that likely originated in China. But Kuhnel advises against confusing the two terms. Her understanding is that revenge sleep procrastination and sleep procrastination have nothing in common.

© Inc. Magazine

In general, procrastination describes the process of postponing urgent or necessary tasks or activities—like cleaning or writing a paper—and replacing them with less important, less urgent tasks, like playing computer games or watching TV.

On the other hand, retaliatory sleep procrastination is "deliberately delaying sleep time", which is why she feels that it makes no sense to use "procrastination" in this context. The word "retaliatory" was probably added because, due to the busy working days of Chinese people - employees work more than 40 hours a week - staying up late to go to bed has become their only way to control their lives. Staying up late to sleep, in a way, means "revenge" for not being able to do anything they want during the day.

Lack of self-control

What factors make it so difficult to go to bed early? Sleep procrastination may also be related to personality. For example, Cross and her colleagues proposed the hypothesis between sleep procrastination and self-control in their 2014 paper: individuals with weaker self-control are more likely to procrastinate.

Not only that, the researchers found that the same people who procrastinate most often on sleep are also prone to procrastinating on other things. Perhaps the simplest explanation for this phenomenon is a common personality trait: low self-control . Cross and colleagues note in a chapter of their 2016 book, Procrastination, Health, and Well-Being. So, this means putting off boring tasks and giving up on completing fun activities. Many other publications have also pointed out how a lack of self-control is a major reason for sleep procrastination.

(www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128028629000050#!)

© RTE

When self-regulation fails, it creates a "thought-behavior gap" -- a discrepancy between what you think in your head and what you actually do. This is especially true for behaviors that promote good health, like people who sincerely want to exercise, eat healthy, or quit smoking, but fail miserably. Researchers have studied the thought-behavior gap several times in these situations.

The impact of sleep chronotype

However, not all scientists agree that sleep procrastination is simply a product of lack of self-control. In a study published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2018 by Kuhnel and his colleagues, they conducted a survey on the impact of self-control on sleep procrastination among a total of 108 respondents from various industries. Not only that, the three psychologists also turned their attention to another factor: the subjects' sleep chronotype .

The results showed that late chronotypes — also known as evening types, or "owls" — were more likely to experience sleep procrastination during the workday than early types, or "larks." Late chronotypes have to wake up earlier in the morning to go to work and are forced to adapt to a morning chronotype's schedule, Kuhnel said. But because they're so tired that evening, it's harder for them to fall asleep earlier. That's why they end up being more likely to experience sleep procrastination. "Our findings go against the prevailing view that sleep procrastination is primarily caused by a lack of self-regulation," she explained.

© Next Step 4 ADHD

In 2019, two researchers from Poland wanted to find other factors that might exacerbate sleep procrastination. They found that its occurrence had no significant correlation with the subjects' place of residence, education level, or family status (whether there was a partner or children at home). However, women tended to procrastinate slightly more than men. The same was true for students compared to the non-school participants in the study.

(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31619947/)

Serious consequences

From a clinical perspective, sleep procrastination is not necessarily harmful. It is only when the lack of sleep it causes becomes a daily habit that it causes health problems. The consequences of insufficient nightly rest are most likely to have an immediate impact on the next day: sluggishness, inability to concentrate, and difficulty completing work, both mentally and physically. But more serious than this are the long-term effects: chronic lack of sleep can lead to cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, and depression.

(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1978335/)

© Joy Reactor

Studies have also shown that even mild sleep deprivation can damage the immune system. Teenagers need adequate sleep to ensure brain development, otherwise too little sleep may cause cognitive impairment. Not only that, lack of sleep can also worsen self-control, which in turn can further increase the frequency of procrastination - thus forming a vicious cycle.

(pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15126529/)

Data provided by researchers from China prove that the depressive symptoms that occur in most college students may be related to sleep procrastination. According to a 2020 study, the frequency of sleep procrastination among people with depressive symptoms in China is significantly higher than that of those without symptoms. In particular, some severe depressive symptoms have a clear relationship with sleep procrastination.

(link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11325-020-02079-0)

Another study published in 2021 from China revealed how excessive smartphone use plays a role in sleep procrastination, sleep quality, and depressive symptoms. Another study from the same year showed that female and male students who were "addicted to smartphones" were more likely to fall into depression and anxiety, and were more likely to procrastinate before bedtime. People with low self-control are particularly susceptible.

(bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-021-03451-4)

(www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032721006480)

Behavior and thoughts are in line

So what do you do when you get a late-night notification that the latest episode of a TV series has been released, or see a tempting message scrolling across your phone screen? The goal is not to get eight hours of sleep a night or to be in bed by midnight, Cross and her colleagues wrote in a chapter of their 2016 book. Instead, smart interventions should help patients align their behavior with their thoughts.

To do this, the first thing to do is to realize that delaying sleep has negative effects. Cross and colleagues recommend improving our understanding of the consequences of insufficient sleep on health and well-being. Many people always complain about not getting enough sleep at night and feeling tired, but at the same time, they often do not consider going to bed earlier as a solution. Therefore, they should first realize that even such a small behavioral change can have this positive impact.

© ADDitude

Cross also recommends thinking about your nightly schedule and sleep preferences. For example, you can ask yourself what time you plan to go to bed and what time you plan to do. Based on this, you can come up with a hard-to-sway goal for sleep time.

Furthermore, there is evidence that healthy sleep hygiene can also help prevent sleep procrastination. This routine includes avoiding activities that may stimulate the brain before bed and maintaining a regular sleep rhythm - all of which also applies to people with sleep disorders, that is, difficulty falling asleep or frequent awakenings, and difficulty staying asleep for a long time.

It's also helpful to set clear rules for yourself. For example, you can set a rule that phones are not allowed in the bedroom, or that all electronic devices and lights must be turned off after a certain time. It can also help to design your sleeping environment to reduce the possible temptations around you - for example, leaving the computer in the study or installing the TV in the living room.

Psychotherapists also recommend giving yourself more time for entertainment and rest during the day, so you don't have to wait until the evening to stare at the screen all the time. Because after only a few hours the next day, you will pay the price for this entertainment method that becomes more and more rampant as time goes by. So turn off the TV, put down your phone, and close your eyes!

By Janosch Deeg

Translated by Ishmael

Proofreading/Sesame filling teeth gap

Original article/www.scientificamerican.com/article/it-goes-by-the-name-bedtime-procrastination-and-you-can-probably-guess-what-it-is/

This article is based on the Creative Commons License (BY-NC) and is published by Ishmael on Leviathan

The article only reflects the author's views and does not necessarily represent the position of Leviathan