Self-compassion and bedtime procrastination: an emotion regulation perspective

The current study extended previous research on self-compassion and health behaviours by examining the associations of self-compassion to bedtime procrastination, an important sleep-related behaviour. We hypothesized that lower negative affect and adaptive emotion regulation would explain the proposed links between self-compassion and less bedtime procrastination. Two cross-sectional online studies were conducted. Study 1 included 134 healthy individuals from the community (mean age 30.22, 77.4% female). Study 2 included 646 individuals from the community (mean age 30.74, 68.9% female) who were screened for the absence of clinical insomnia. Participants in both studies completed measures of self-compassion, positive and negative affect and bedtime procrastination. Participants in study 2 also completed a measure of cognitive reappraisal. Multiple mediation analysis in study 1 revealed the expected indirect effects of self-compassion on less bedtime procrastination through lower negative affect [b = − .09, 95% CI = (− .20, − .02), but not higher positive affect. Path analysis in study 2 replicated these findings and further demonstrated that cognitive reappraisal explained the lower negative affect linked to self-compassion [b = − .011; 95% CI = (− .025; − .003)]. The direct effect of self-compassion on less bedtime procrastination remained significant. Our novel findings provide preliminary evidence that self-compassionate people are less likely to engage in bedtime procrastination, due in part to their use of healthy emotion regulation strategies that downregulate negative mood.