Why do I procrastinate going to bed?

By No Rush · Updated November 9, 2026

The short answer

You stay up later than you planned because the hours after a busy day finally feel free, or because your phone makes the time slip by. Researchers call it bedtime procrastination, and people give both reasons when asked. Make one plan for tonight: at a set time, your phone goes on the charger in another room.

Why do I not want to go to bed?

Sanne Nauts and colleagues asked people why they went to bed later than they wanted to. The answers fell into three kinds. Some stayed up on purpose, to have time for themselves after a day full of things they had to do. Some lost track of time with a series or their phone. A few went to bed late because they expected to lie awake anyway.

What is revenge bedtime procrastination?

It's the internet's name for the first kind: staying up to win back the time the day took from you. Research uses the plainer term bedtime procrastination. Floor Kroese and colleagues described it in 2014 as going to bed later than you intended, while nothing outside you is keeping you up. A baby that needs feeding or a late shift doesn't count.

Is it a lack of self-control?

It may be part of it. In a survey of 2,431 Dutch adults, a large share said they regularly went to bed later than they wanted. People who found it harder in general to steer their own behaviour did this more often, and they more often felt they slept too little. Because it's a survey, it shows a link between these things and leaves open what causes what.

How do I stop putting off going to bed?

Give the evening a clear end, and give yourself some free time earlier. An if-then plan works well for the end: when it's 11 pm, I put my phone on the charger in the kitchen. Peter Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran combined 94 studies and found that plans like this helped people do what they intended. If the late hours are your only free time, move twenty minutes of it to earlier in the evening.

In the No Rush app

In the app you can tell the little cloud that you keep picking what feels good now, and that you regret it later. It won't ask what the thing is, and it won't talk about discipline. It asks you three questions, one at a time: what happens just before, what it gives you right then, and what it costs you the next day.

No Rush app

An iPhone app for people who feel stuck. It sets out one small next step at a time and tells you why that one. It is not therapy.

Sign up free Take the test For iPhone. Coming soon to the App Store. The first seven days are free in the app. After that, you choose whether to subscribe. Sign up now and the app stays free for you, for life.

Sources

Kroese, De Ridder, Evers & Adriaanse (2014). Bedtime procrastination: introducing a new area of procrastination. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 611. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00611
Kroese, Evers, Adriaanse & de Ridder (2014). Bedtime procrastination: A self-regulation perspective on sleep insufficiency in the general population. Journal of Health Psychology, 21(5), 853-862. doi.org/10.1177/1359105314540014
Nauts, Kamphorst, Stut, De Ridder & Anderson (2019). The explanations people give for going to bed late: A qualitative study of the varieties of bedtime procrastination. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 17(6), 753-762. doi.org/10.1080/15402002.2018.1491850
Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119. doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1