Just One More Episode: Predictors of Procrastination with Television and Implications for Sleep Quality

Abstract

Sleep experts have raised concern over the effects of electronic media use on sleep. To date, few studies have looked beyond the effects of duration and frequency of media exposure or examined the underlying mechanisms of this association. As procrastinatory media use has been related to lower well-being, we used data from two survey studies (N1= 821, N2 = 584) to investigate (1) predictors of procrastinatory TV viewing and (2) the link between procrastinatory TV viewing and sleep quality.Findings from both studies indicate that those with a stronger viewing habit, higher TV involvement, and an eveningness preference reported more procrastinatory TV viewing. Procrastinatory TV viewing was related to subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep efficiency, and daytime dysfunction. This association was fully mediated by perceived stress. As sleep is key for the replenishment of self-control, procrastinators may be setting themselves up to fail at self-regulating, a situation exacerbated by the omnipresence of media in today's society.

Chronotype and trait self-control distinctively predicted subjective sleep quality via sleep hygiene behaviors and bedtime media use

“…In addition, circadian misalignment causes difficulties in falling asleep in evening types when they intend to catch up normative schedules, increasing their vulnerability to developing improper sleep hygiene behaviors (e.g., bedtime media use) than morning types. Studies showed that evening types engaged in greater procrastinatory media use, as well as more bedtime procrastination, than morning types [20]. Thus, we hypothesize that bedtime media use would mediate the effect of chronotype on sleep quality.…”

“…For example, studies conducted among Belgian or Dutch adults found that low trait self-control predicted greater bedtime procrastination (i.e., voluntary sleep delays without obvious reasons [19]), directly and indirectly through increased deficient self-regulation via TV watching [9]. Moreover, procrastinatory TV watching was found to predict poor sleep quality via increased stress and pre-sleep cognitive arousals [20]. Given these findings, we proposed that people low in self-control (vs. those high in self-control) would be more likely to turn to media for instant gratification and pleasurable experience, which further undermine sleep quality [18].…”

Bedtime repetitive negative thinking moderates the relationship between psychological stress and insomnia

“…Lastly, with increasing access to technological distractions, research has begun to examine the role of bedtime procrastination in sleep difficulties (Kroese et al., 2014, 2016). For example, procrastinatory television viewing is associated with greater sleep latency (Exelmans et al., 2019). One potential driving force for this procrastination may be a desire to delay the experience, or reduce the duration, of bedtime RNT (Nauts et al., 2018).…”

Dance the Night Away: How Automatic TikTok Use Creates Pre-Sleep Cognitive Arousal and Daytime Fatigue

“…Automatic media use can (to some extent) be characterized by mindlessness, resulting from an “overlearned” behavior that not only interferes with daily duties, but also comes with undesired, maladaptive consequences. Such daily interferences can be both reasoned actions (i.e., procrastination: purposefully avoiding cognitively more strenuous activities; Exelmans et al, 2019; Meier et al, 2016), but can also emerge from unawareness, for example, “losing track of time” (Matsakis, 2019). Both automatic social media and TV-use reportedly increase unregulated use (Exelmans & Van den Bulck, 2017b; Schnauber-Stockmann et al, 2018).…”