When the night is too short. Bedtime procrastination, self-compassion, and sleep in a daily diary study.

Abstract

Objective: Since sleep is an important part of life and too little sleep can lead to disastrous consequences, it is important to look at the factors that may disturb healthy sleep. While procrastination and in particular bedtime procrastination is such a disruptive factor, self-compassion on the other side might be a protective factor.

Methods: For this reason, in this study, we took a closer look at the interplay between bedtime procrastination, self-compassion, as well as at the actual sleep outcomes in a longitudinal diary study over 1 week. Our assumption was that bedtime procrastination has a negative impact on sleep outcomes, yet self-compassion could be a protective factor buffering this influence. To enable comparability with a previous study, analyses of variance were carried out.

Results: Utilizing frequentist and Bayesian analyses, we found a consistent negative influence of bedtime procrastination and a positive influence of self-compassion on almost all sleep outcomes. While self-compassion did not entirely mitigate the effect of bedtime procrastination on sleep, its positive impact on sleep outcomes was evident.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the significance of self-compassion and procrastination in relation to actual sleep behaviour, adding to the existing body of literature on sleep research.