Self-regulation and bedtime procrastination: The role of self-regulation skills and chronotype

The present study focuses on examining the role of chronotype in the relationship between self-regulation skills and bedtime procrastination. Two possible models were tested, hypothesizing that eveningness may moderate or mediate the association between self-regulation abilities and bedtime procrastination. A sample of 304 participants completed measures of self-regulation, morningness-eveningness, bedtime procrastination, and subjective indicators of the amount and quality of sleep. The analyses showed that bedtime procrastination was negatively correlated with hours of sleep and positively correlated with frequencies of perceived insufficient sleep and daily fatigue. Moreover, bedtime procrastination was negatively related to self-regulation skills and to morningness. No significant interaction (moderation) effect was found between self-regulation skills and eveningness. The analysis showed that eveningness partly mediated the relationship between low self-regulation skills and bedtime procrastination. The results confirm that low self-regulation skills may account for higher bedtime procrastination, and suggest that this negative effect reveals itself, in part, through enhancing eveningness.