Bedtime procrastination: introducing a new area of procrastination 
 
 Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands 
 
 Background: Procrastination is a prevalent and problematic phenomenon that has mostly been studied in the domain of academic behavior. The current study shows that procrastination may also lead to harmful outcomes in the area of health behavior, introducing bedtime procrastination as an important factor related to getting insufficient sleep and consequently affecting individual well-being. Bedtime procrastination is defined as failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so. 
 
 Methods: To empirically support the conceptual introduction of bedtime procrastination, an online survey study was conducted among a community sample (N = 177). The relationship between bedtime procrastination and individual difference variables related to self-regulation and general procrastination was assessed. Moreover, it was investigated whether bedtime procrastination was a predictor of self-reported sleep outcomes (experienced insufficient sleep, hours of sleep, fatigue during the day). 
 
 Results: Bedtime procrastination was negatively associated with self-regulation: people who scored lower on self-regulation variables reported more bedtime procrastination. Moreover, self-reported bedtime procrastination was related to general reports of insufficient sleep above and beyond demographics and self-regulation. 
 
 Conclusions: Introducing a novel domain in which procrastinators experience problems, bedtime procrastination appears to be a prevalent and relevant issue that is associated with getting insufficient sleep. ||||| In 2008, a nameless commenter at Procrastinator's Anonymous asked a question that garnered significant response: 
 
 "I often find myself delaying my bedtime hour, even when I have nothing important that keeps me from going to bed. It's an odd feeling, because I feel sleepy. Can we even call this 'procrastination'? I'm not sure." 
 
 Six years later, researchers from Utrecht University have an answer: Yes. 
 
 The Centers for Disease control labels insufficient sleep a "public health epidemic." Thirty percent of adults report sleeping fewer than six hours per night. That's not healthy. According to the CDC, "Persons experiencing sleep insufficiency are... more likely to suffer from chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, depression, and obesity, as well as from cancer, increased mortality, and reduced quality of life and productivity." Even more startling, a 2009 survey found that one in twenty individuals admitted to dozing off behind the wheel in the previous month. 
 
 Clearly, we need more sleep. So why aren't we getting it? Some of the more popular reasons include artificial lighting, stress, and restrictive work hours. Now, in a new study published to Frontiers in Psychology, Floor Kroese, an assistant professor in psychology at Utrecht University, and a team of researchers put forward the notion that we don't get enough sleep because... meh. 
 
 In other words, we procrastinate. 
 
 The textbook definition of procrastination is a “voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay." At least half of college students do it on academics and a tenth of the general population procrastinates chronically. 
 
 In her study, Kroese surveyed 177 individuals via Amazon's Mechanical Turk on all sorts of lifestyle and demographic factors, sleep and inclination to procrastinate among them. Bedtime procrastination was gauged by assessing subjects' level of agreement with statements like "I go to bed later than I had intended" and "I easily get distracted by things when I actually would like to go to bed." Digging into the data, Kroese found moderate levels of bedtime procrastination among the survey population. She also found that it was negatively correlated with reported hours of sleep and positively correlated with fatigue and insufficient sleep. 
 
 But the results prompt some obvious skepticism. It's not like sleep is a chore, so why would people procrastinate on it? 
 
 "We speculate that it is not so much a matter of not wanting to sleep, but rather of not wanting to quit other activities," Kroese explains. Instead of going to sleep, it's "one more episode" on Netflix or "one more quest" on that video game. 
 
 "Bedtime procrastination may be a relatively modern phenomenon," she adds. 
 
 For those bedtime procrastinators out there, fixing their problem could be a tall task. Sleep is nice, but watching people get beheaded on Game of Thrones, well, that's hard to contend with. 
 
 Source: Kroese F, De Ridder D, Evers C and Adriaanse M (2014). Bedtime Procrastination: Introducing a New Area of Procrastination. Front. Psychol. 5:611. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00611 ||||| People who plan on getting an early night but instead spend their evenings binging on their Netflix favourites may be succumbing to the ‘modern phenomenon’ of bedtime procrastination. 
 
 Researchers at the University of Utrecht found people who regularly failed to get to sleep at the time they intended to were often still awake because they were struggling to quit other activities, such as watching Netflix, despite feeling tired. 
 
 The authors defined procrastination as the: "voluntary delay of an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay”. 
 
 Procrastination usually involves wasting time to avoid un-enjoyable tasks, but sleep is not an activity that falls into this category, the authors noted. 
 
 Floor Kroese, who led the study, looked at how procrastinating affected not only people's ability to sleep, but also how it affected their general health and well-being. 
 
 A team asked questions about the lifestyle and demographic factors of 177 individuals, as well as their sleep patterns and tendency to procrastinate via an online survey. 
 
 Participants were asked to state their level of agreement with statements such as "I go to bed later than I had intended" and "I easily get distracted by things when I actually would like to go to bed" in order to measure bedtime procrastination. 
 
 The study found people who did not go straight to bed found it harder to self-regulate and stick to a workable routine. 
 
 “Bedtime procrastination may be a relatively modern phenomenon,” Kroese explained. “We speculate that it is not so much a matter of not wanting to sleep, but rather of not wanting to quit other activities. 
 
 “With the development of electrical devices and the 24/7 entertainment industry, people may be facing many more distractions now compared to several decades ago.” 
 
 The study Bedtime procrastination: introducing a new era of procrastination” was published in the journal Frontiers. ||||| By eleven-ish o’clock on weeknights, I know that I probably should be at least considering getting ready for bed. But getting up off the couch in order to brush my teeth, wash my face, and change into pajamas — sometimes it all just seems so hard. And so I avoid it for a little while and end up going to sleep far too late, all for the sake of watching one more episode of Orange Is the New Black or screwing around on social media. 
 
 It’s not quite insomnia, because it isn’t that I can’t sleep; I’m just putting it off. Recently, researchers in the Netherlands put a name to this phenomenon: “bedtime procrastination,” which they define as “failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so.” 
 
 Jordan Gaines Lewis is studying sleep at Penn State College of Medicine, and while she wasn’t involved in this new research, she offers some practical tips on overcoming the urge to procrastinate your bedtime: 
 
 I think it’s most important to realize how crappy you feel and how much your work suffers after an OitNB nighttime binge. … A simple fix is to keep a schedule for yourself and stick to it. If you can’t fit in all of your fun daytime activities in before your scheduled bedtime, then take comfort in knowing you’ll be alert and well-rested the next day to experience them. 
 
 This isn’t, of course, a brand-new phenomenon. But it is newly named, and naming a thing is the first step toward beating it.
– After a sleepy start to the week, you swore you'd be in bed last night by 10—but when the clock struck midnight, you were still catching up on Game of Thrones. You're not the only one struggling to get to bed despite wanting to sleep: Researchers are describing "bedtime procrastination," which "may be a relatively modern phenomenon." The definition, per Science of Us, is "failing to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so." Working in the Netherlands, the experts asked 177 people to respond to questions like "I go to bed later than I had intended" and "I easily get distracted by things when I actually would like to go to bed," the Independent reports. They found that bedtime procrastination was fairly common and associated with less sleep and more tiredness, Real Clear Science notes. An expert tip: "Keep a schedule for yourself and stick to it. If you can't fit in all of your fun daytime activities before your scheduled bedtime, then take comfort in knowing you'll be alert and well-rested the next day to experience them."