In a groundbreaking investigation set to capture the attention of both the scientific community and the public alike, researchers from the University of Utah have revealed compelling links between the pervasive phenomenon of bedtime procrastination and intrinsic personality traits among young adults. This extensive study, to be unveiled at the forthcoming SLEEP 2025 annual meeting, elucidates how delaying bedtime is closely associated with depressive symptomatology and specific personality dimensions such as heightened neuroticism and diminished conscientiousness and extraversion. These revelations not only advance our understanding of sleep behavior but also spotlight emotional health as a crucial factor in addressing bedtime procrastination, a widespread issue with profound implications on overall well-being.
The study’s importance is underscored by confronting a paradox: individuals who procrastinate their bedtime, thus curtailing the length and quality of their sleep, are paradoxically less driven to engage in stimulating or enjoyable activities during the hours they delay sleep. Lead author Steven Carlson, a doctoral candidate specializing in psychology, articulates this counterintuitive finding by emphasizing that bedtime procrastinators do not seek excitement or engagement. Instead, their behavioral patterns resonate with depressive affect, characterized by predominance of negative emotional experiences coupled with a paucity of positive feelings. This nuanced psychological profile indicates that bedtime procrastination might be an outward manifestation of complex internal emotional dysregulation rather than simply poor time management or a lack of self-control.
Utilizing a robust methodology, the research enlisted 390 young adults with a mean age of 24, a demographic critical in understanding modern sleep habits shaped by evolving social and technological landscapes. Participants underwent a multifaceted assessment including a chronotype questionnaire to distinguish ‘morning types’ from ‘evening types,’ reflecting innate circadian preferences affecting sleep patterns. In parallel, the researchers evaluated the “Big Five” personality traits – neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness – via validated psychometric instruments. Participants maintained detailed sleep diaries over a fortnight to quantify bedtime procrastination, ensuring high-resolution behavioral data underpinning the study’s analytic rigor.
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Adjusting for chronotype was a pivotal analytic step, isolating personality influences from biological sleep-wake tendencies. The persistence of significant associations between bedtime procrastination and elevated neuroticism alongside reduced conscientiousness and extraversion even after controlling for chronotype highlights the robustness of the findings. Neuroticism, often linked to anxiety and emotional instability, may predispose individuals to experience negative pre-sleep affect, thereby disrupting habitual sleep initiation. Conscientiousness, reflecting self-discipline and goal orientation, when low, plausibly impairs the capacity to adhere to planned bedtimes. Similarly, lower extraversion suggests reduced proclivity toward energizing social interactions, which might otherwise distract from ruminative or negative thought patterns at night.
The researchers place these behavioral insights within the broader context of sleep health, referencing guidance from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which advocates for adults to regularly achieve seven or more hours of sleep. Bedtime procrastination compromises this recommendation by eroding the opportunity for sufficient sleep, thereby threatening diverse facets of mental and physical health. Sleep deprivation has been robustly linked to impaired cognitive performance, emotional dysregulation, and susceptibility to chronic illnesses, making the management of bedtime procrastination an essential public health objective.
Crucially, the study propels a compelling argument that emotional health – particularly the management of negative affect and anxiety preceding bedtime – may serve as an actionable target for clinical interventions. Carlson posits that bedtime procrastination extends beyond traditional conceptualizations rooted in poor planning or time management difficulties. Instead, it embodies a behavioral symptom of deeper affective challenges, potentially amenable to therapeutic strategies aimed at reducing pre-sleep emotional distress. If successful, such interventions could mitigate this behavioral barrier to adequate sleep and reverberate as improvements in overall psychological well-being.
This research not only enhances scientific understanding but also carries sweeping societal implications. In an era where digital distractions and increasing mental health challenges converge, bedtime procrastination manifests as a highly prevalent behavior with cascading effects on productivity, mood regulation, and physical health. The societal costs related to sleep deficiency accentuate the urgency for innovative, evidence-based approaches to curtail bedtime procrastination and its sequelae.
The upcoming presentation of these findings at SLEEP 2025—a leading international forum convened by the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, which includes the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society—will stimulate dialogue among experts in sleep medicine, circadian biology, and psychological science. Such interdisciplinary forums are instrumental in translating emerging empirical knowledge into practical clinical guidelines and public health strategies.
Beyond the research implications, the study exemplifies methodological rigor through its longitudinal diary method, ensuring ecological validity by capturing naturalistic sleep behaviors over two weeks. This approach surpasses reliance on retrospective self-report alone, which is often vulnerable to recall bias, thereby enriching the reliability and applicability of the findings. The researchers’ commitment to disentangling chronotype influences from personality effects further bolsters the clarity and precision of the conclusions.
In sum, the University of Utah study elucidates the intricate interplay between personality, emotional health, and bedtime procrastination, reframing this common behavior as a multifaceted psychological phenomenon. It elevates understanding of how depressive tendencies and emotional regulation difficulties manifest in everyday sleep-related behaviors, pointing toward integrated approaches that encompass psychological and behavioral dimensions for improving sleep hygiene. This paradigm shift holds promise for developing tailored interventions to address one of the most insidious barriers to adequate sleep in young adults today.
As the scientific community and the public alike await the formal presentation of these findings, it is becoming ever clearer that addressing bedtime procrastination demands more than just admonitions about discipline or time management. Instead, it calls for holistic strategies that tackle emotional health problems head-on, potentially revolutionizing how sleep health is conceptualized and managed in clinical and public health contexts alike.
Subject of Research: People
Article Title: Depressive and Dysregulated: Examining Personality Factors Among Bedtime Procrastinators
News Publication Date: 19-May-2025
Web References:
DOI link to the article
Sleep 2025 Annual Meeting
American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM)
Sleep Research Society (SRS)
References:
American Academy of Sleep Medicine. (n.d.). Sleep Duration Recommendations.
Carlson, S. et al. (2025). Depressive and Dysregulated: Examining Personality Factors Among Bedtime Procrastinators. Sleep, Supplement 1.
Keywords: Sleep, Mental health
Tags: bedtime procrastinationconscientiousness and procrastinationdepressive symptoms in young adultsemotional health and sleep qualityextraversion and bedtime habitsimplications of sleep procrastinationneuroticism and sleep behaviorpersonality traits and sleeppsychological factors in sleep disordersresearch on sleep behaviorsSLEEP 2025 annual meetingUniversity of Utah sleep study