D “After researchers, procrastination at bedtime – that is to say the tendency to delay the bedtime in the absence of external obligations – would be associated with specific personality traits. Amélie Boukhobza, clinical psychologist and author of the Podcast You told me …deciphers this news for True Medical.
People who procrastine all have this common point
If you still doubted it, it is now acted: the procrastination of your teenager at bedtime is not due to chance. According to a new study, soon presented in the annual meeting “Sleep 2025”, procrastination at bedtime among young adults is correlated “to specific characteristics of personality “, including depressive symptoms.
To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers asked 390 young adults in an average of 24 years to fill in a chronotypical questionnaire in order to assess if they were evening – in other words, if they preferred to go to bed late – or “morning”, for the time.
Participants also fulfilled a questionnaire evaluating five personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion (ie the ease of establishing contacts with others), openness, kindness and professional conscience. They finally held a sleep journal for almost 14 days to assess their level of procrastination.
Result ? Procrastination at bedtime was associated with increased neuroticism, lower professional conscience and extraversion.
“Our study has shown that people who procrastinate at bedtime were less likely to seek stimulating, engaging or pleasant activities. On the contrary, people who procrastinated at that moment have brought back emotional experiences compatible with depression, confirming in particular a tendency to experience negative emotions and to lack positive emotional experiences”, Confirms Steven Carlson, principal author, doctoral student in the Psychology Department of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Still according to the expert, working on the emotional health of these young people could help limit procrastination at bedtime.
“”This reflex is not only associated with poor planning, a lack of self -discipline and time management problems, but also potentially with difficulties in managing negative emotions and anxiety before bedtime“Continues the researcher.”Given the omnipresence of this behavior and its impact on the quality of sleep, we hope to extend this research to determine whether the reduction in negative emotions before bedtime can be an effective treatment against procrastination at bedtime. “
But what does Amélie Boukhobza think, clinical psychologist, of these conclusions? And what solutions to adopt in the event of proven procrastination? Here are his recommendations.
An attempt to run interior
“We know it, we are tired. It is late. We’re going to lack sleep. And yet … We scroll, we launch a series, we do a” last thing “, a game of play, a trick on the phone, we hang out in the bathroom. As if we voluntarily delay the moment to turn off the light. This is what we call the procrastination of bedtime. And in young adults, this phenomenon is more. Confirms Amélie Boukhobza.
However, procrastinate is not just a bad habit, nor a simple lack of will. “It is often linked to certain personality traits: impulsiveness, difficulty deferring gratuities, low tolerance for frustration. But not only. Recent studies show that this behavior is also more frequent in people more sensitive to stress, anxiety or negative emotions – what researchers call a” high level of neuroticism “,”, continues the expert.
Sometimes it is not so much a desire to have fun … as a way of avoiding emotional discomfort. “A way not to end up alone with yourself. We fill the time so as not to hear the rest. Like an attempt to go into an inner flight”, she analyzes.
Many also live in the evening as a finally free moment. Without constraints, without pressure.
“”After a day suffered, bedtime becomes almost an act of resistance. An unconscious way to regain some control. Except that by saving time in the evening, we especially end up losing the next day. Fatigue, irritability, attention disorders … The cost is real. Besides, we often enter a vicious circle: the more we are exhausted, the more we need these small stolen moments to blow. However, the more we prolong them … the more you exhaust it “, warns the practitioner.
The solution to stop any form of procrastination?
“Is it not to force yourself to sleep. It is to understand what we are looking for by rejecting that moment. A little calm? Freedom? Recumering? Or just flee what we feel when everything stops?”,, concludes Amélie Boukhobza.