Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Aug 19, 2025; 15(8): 106092
Published online Aug 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i8.106092
Interplay among bedtime procrastination, sleep patterns, and subjective wellbeing in the Indian population: An observational study
Gunjan Parasher, Shikhar Gupta, Sujita Kumar Kar
Gunjan Parasher, Shikhar Gupta, Faculty of Medical Sciences, King George's Medical University, Lucknow 226003, Uttar Pradesh, India
Sujita Kumar Kar, Department of Psychiatry, King George's Medical University, Lucknow 226003, Uttar Pradesh, India
Co-first authors: Gunjan Parasher and Shikhar Gupta.
Author contributions: Parasher G and Kar SK contributed to the conceptualization, methodology, software, investigation, and visualization; Parasher G, Gupta S, and Kar SK contributed to the validation, resources, writing-original draft preparation, writing-review, and editing; Kar SK contributed to the formal analysis and supervision; Parasher G and Gupta S contributed to the data curation and project administration; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of King George's Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India with Ethical approval reference code: 128th ECM IIA/P3 with Letter No. 26/Ethics/2024 dated 02-04-2024.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent has been obtained from the patient(s) to publish this paper.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available on request at drsujita@gmail.com.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sujita Kumar Kar, MD, Additional Professor, Department of Psychiatry, King George's Medical University, Shahmina Road, Lucknow 226003, Uttar Pradesh, India. drsujita@gmail.com
Received: February 17, 2025
Revised: April 12, 2025
Accepted: June 17, 2025
Published online: August 19, 2025
Processing time: 174 Days and 4.3 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Sleep deprivation is a common problem in society, and bedtime procrastination (BtP) has become a significant cause of poor sleep among healthy individuals across various countries.

AIM

To study BtP, sleep behavior, and subjective well-being in the Indian population.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional study. The recruited participants were evaluated using the BtP Scale, World Health Organzation-5 Well-Being index, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item, Munich Chronotype Questionnaire and Single-Item Sleep Quality Scale.

RESULTS

A total of 401 participants were recruited for the study. Symptoms of anxiety were higher in the female participants compared to males. Among females, there was a significant positive correlation between BtP score with symptoms of anxiety (r = 0.23) and depression (r = 0.15) and a negative correlation with subjective wellbeing (r = -0.23). A significant negative correlation was found between the ages of women and BtP score (r = -0.15). Among the male participants, there was a significant negative correlation of age with BtP score (r = -0.3) and anxiety (r = -0.19). Here, too, the BtP score was positively correlated with depression (r = 0.18) and anxiety (r = 0.35).

CONCLUSION

BtP worsens anxiety, depression, sleep quality, and subjective well-being. It needs to be targeted for the promotion and prevention of mental health.

Keywords: Bedtime procrastination; Sleep quality; Subjective well-being; Anxiety; Depression; Sleep

Core Tip: Bedtime procrastination (BtP) has a significant positive correlation with anxiety and depression, irrespective of sex. About 40% of people use electronic gadgets excessively (more than 6 hours daily). Females using electronic gadgets have significantly higher levels of anxiety than males. BtP negatively affects well-being and sleep quality in males.