Always late to bed: How to deal with bedtime procrastination

Bedtime procrastination describes behavior that involves staying up longer than intended. Here you can find out what causes this and how you can avoid staying up late.

You scroll through Instagram for hours, watch TV, click through online shops and check what’s new on Twitter – when you should have been asleep by now. If you too often put off going to bed, you may be engaging in bedtime procrastination. Like any form of procrastination, bedtime procrastination can have negative consequences.

What is bedtime procrastination?

Everyone has probably put off important things: homework or tax returns, potentially awkward conversations or preparing for a presentation. Such sporadic postponement must be distinguished from the disorder of procrastination – a pathological form of procrastination, which is characterized by delaying activities or tasks that are considered urgent and necessary and doing something else that seems more pleasant in comparison.

Procrastination is a self-control disorder that can cause great suffering and, in the worst case, have negative (professional) consequences. Those affected often not only have to contend with a guilty conscience, but also with a severe impairment of their personal goals and their physical and psychological condition. For example, it is not uncommon for one’s own person to be devalued because one is annoyed with oneself for having delayed something unnecessarily.

Bedtime procrastination unnecessarily delays sleep. According to the science magazine Spektrum, a definition has been established in specialist circles according to which bedtime procrastination occurs when

1. you actively postpone falling asleep,
2. there is no valid reason for staying up late,
3. and you know that staying up late could have negative consequences for you.

For example, bedtime procrastination can lead to sleep deprivation, making you less productive the next day. lack of sleep can also cause irritability and other mental and physical problems. In the long term, too little sleep also messes up heartbeat, blood pressure, hormones, metabolism and other functions.

Why do you procrastinate going to bed?

In 2014, the social and behavioral researcher Floor M. Kroese from the Dutch University of Utrecht first named the phenomenon of bedtime procrastination. The scientist also investigated the causes of the delayed bedtime.

According to her research, there is a connection between bedtime procrastination and personality: According to this, people procrastinate their bedtime because of lack of it self control. You wouldn’t have enough self-regulation to quit enjoyable activities like watching TV or using your smartphone for the necessary bedtime – which can be uncomfortable if you often worry about pre-sleep ruminations.

According to Spektrum, this is where an “intention-behaviour gap” occurs, which often occurs in the context of health: For example, many people decide to eat healthier but manage to do so due to a lack But not self-regulation.

However, there are also other scientific explanations. The research results of the psychologist Jana Kühnel from the University of Vienna sees the cause of bedtime procrastination in the so-called chronotypes based on how our internal clock ticks. According to Kühnel, it is the late chronotypes (owls) that are more prone to bedtime procrastination during the working week than the early chronotypes (larks).

That’s because late types have to adjust to schedules that don’t match their chronobiology: they have to get up early for work in the morning, even though they’re not yet active then. And because they are not tired enough in the evening, they have trouble falling asleep. Because of this, they delay going to bed.

Sometimes there is also talk of “revenge bedtime procrastination” when it comes to staying up unnecessarily. As the term suggests, revenge bedtime procrastination keeps you awake longer: after a long, tiring day at work, you want to make up for the free time you didn’t have during the day. But according to Spektrum, for Kühnel, this behavior is not the same as classic bedtime procrastination. In contrast to bedtime procrastination, revenge bedtime procrastination is intentionally staying up longer out of spite.

How to avoid bedtime procrastination

As described above, bedtime procrastination can lead to serious health problems in the long term. In order not to delay the night’s sleep any longer, you should first of all become aware of the effects. This can help align intent and behavior. Remind yourself that you can achieve a positive effect (less tiredness) by changing your behavior (sleeping earlier).

In addition, the following additional tips can help you to avoid bedtime procrastination:

• Adjust to your sleep schedule: If you are one of the “owls” and procrastinate going to bed because you are simply not tired in the evening, it helps to integrate sport into your everyday life. However, you should avoid strenuous exercise until about an hour before bedtime.
• Think of a realistic evening routine: Ask yourself what time you want to go to bed and what you have planned for the night. This way you can plan in advance how much time you have for the activities and what concrete bedtime this results in.
• Set yourself clear rules: For example, your evening routine should include putting away your cell phone or turning off the television 30 minutes before bedtime. You should therefore also ban these objects from the bedroom.
• Focus on relaxation: If you’re delaying bedtime because you tend to brood over things before you go to bed, you could develop personal relaxation rituals. For example, you could Meditation to fall asleep try you with lavender oil rub in or put your thoughts in a write diary.
• More free time during the day: If you do revenge bedtime procrastination, try to find half an hour just for yourself during the day. So you don’t feel the need to catch up on so much free time in the evening. You can read more about this here: Me Time: Why time is so important for yourself.

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