APRIL 2025 🌸
The Bedtime Procrastination Files
Hi Robert,
It’s midnight.
I spent the day being present—with my daughter, with the spring air, with tacos in Queens after an afternoon at the Museum of the Moving Image.
I’m happy. Grateful. Tired.
And also… still awake.
Two episodes of Love on the
Spectrum, a scroll session I barely remember, and now this: writing my Snoozeletter at the very time I coach others not to do things. But I’m not here to shame myself—and I’m certainly not here to shame you either.
This is bedtime procrastination.
Sometimes called “revenge bedtime procrastination,” it’s the very human urge to reclaim your time after a day spent meeting everyone else’s needs. And I’m writing this on a Monday night in the thick of it—to remind myself of what I know to be true, and maybe help you remember it too.
What the Research Says
Bedtime procrastination isn’t about willpower.
It’s a self-regulation behavior, often seen in people who feel stretched thin or overstimulated during the day, lack control over their schedule,
and crave space that’s theirs—even if it comes at the cost of sleep
A 2014 study by Kroese et al. called bedtime procrastination "a failure to go to bed at the intended time, while no external circumstances prevent a person from doing so."
I recently talked about this on the That Twin Mama Podcast.
You can listen to the episode HERE.
*And the bedtime procrastination part begins at minute 19:25.
