Bedtime Procrastination, Sleep Behavior and Subjective Well-Being Among the Indian Population: Exploring the Connective Links

OBJECTIVE– Sleep deprivation is a common problem in the society and bedtime procrastination has emerged as a major cause of poor sleep among the healthy individuals across various nations. We attempted to study the bedtime procrastination, sleep behavior, subjective well-being in the Indian population. METHODS – This was a cross-sectional study. The recruited participants were evaluated on the Bedtime procrastination scale(BtP), WHO-5 Well Being index, Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ -2), Generalized Anxiety Disorder 2-item (GAD -2), Munich Chronotype questionnaire (MCTQ) and Single-Item Sleep Quality Scale (SQS). RESULTS – A total of 401 participants were recruited to the study. Symptoms of anxiety were higher in the female participants compared to males. Among females, there was a significant positive correlation of Bedtime procrastination score with symptoms of anxiety(r=0.23) and depression(r=0.15) and a negative correlation with subjective well-being(r=-0.23). A significant negative correlation was found between 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, BtP score was positively correlated with depression(r=0.18) and anxiety(r=0.35). CONCLUSION- Bedtime procrastination has a close and intricate association with anxiety, depression, sleep quality and subjective well-being. It needs to be targeted for the promotion and prevention of mental health.