关键词: 睡眠拖延行为□生物节律□自我调节□时限性自我调节理论

Abstract: Bedtime procrastination is a new concept in the field of health behavior procrastination. It can be described as going to bed later than intended, without having external reasons for doing so. Recent studies have reported that bedtime procrastination is an important factor related to sleep insufficiency in the general population and leads to serious consequences in the area of health behavior, especially harmful sleep outcomes. Therefore, understanding the underlying mechanisms of bedtime procrastination may provide a new approach to solving sleep deficiency in the general population. The present article reviewed almost all previous studies on bedtime procrastination. First, we summarized the causes of bedtime procrastination. Second, we reviewed the theoretical explanations of the physiological and psychological mechanisms concerning bedtime procrastination behavior. Third, we proposed a hypothesis to explain the process of bedtime procrastination, using temporal self-regulation theory. Fourth, future research directions were prospected. Previous studies have proved that predisposing factors for bedtime procrastination mainly focus on a series of bedtime activities. Bedtime procrastination may be induced by aversion to bedtime routines and by losing track of time during immersive activities before sleeping. The mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of bedtime procrastination are still unclear. However, self-regulation and biological rhythm may explain the occurrence of bedtime procrastination. Some studies have shown that bedtime procrastination is regarded as a form of self-regulatory failure and reflects an intention-behavior gap. People with low self-control are more likely to put instant gratification over long-term goals and therefore are inclined to procrastinate bedtime before sleeping. Other studies have further revealed that bedtime procrastination is related to the depletion of self-regulatory resources because self-control depletion increases the propensity to procrastinate bedtime. From this point of view, self-control is primarily regarded as a trait. However, another study emphasizes the role of self-control as a state and draws the opposite conclusion that people with less self-regulatory resources available before sleeping show lower bedtime procrastination. The physiological mechanism of bedtime procrastination mainly focuses on chronotype, which is a typical manifestation of biological rhythm and represents the individual’s preferred time of falling asleep and waking up. Eveningness (evening chronotype preference) may account for higher bedtime procrastination because the individual’s biological clock prefers sleeping later at night. To sum up, views on bedtime procrastination as a physiological-psychological phenomenon in sleep-related health behavior procrastination could help to provide a deeper understanding of bedtime procrastination. Temporal self-regulation theory may be an optimum choice to explain the procedures of bedtime procrastination behavior. According to this theory, the occurrence of bedtime procrastination may result not only from the relatively weak intentions to go to bed on time but also from the interference of behavioral prepotency or inadequate self-regulatory capacity during the transformation from intention to health behavior. This review also provided some suggestions for future research. Studies are necessary to explore the physiological-psychological mechanisms of bedtime procrastination further and to dig into the neurological mechanisms of bedtime procrastination. Intervention measures that are more effective and based on the underlying mechanisms and theoretical explanations of bedtime procrastination also need to be produced.

Key words: bedtime procrastination, biological rhythm, self-regulation, temporal self-regulation theory