A bedtime if-then plan made each night beat one made once
Who it’s about: Adults
- Helped
Making a fresh if-then bedtime plan each night got people to bed closer to their planned time than planning once.
- Rule: Every daytested
- Action: Make an if-then plan for your obstacleused
- Action: Go to bedused
- Rule: Before going to bedused
Randomised trial of 297 UK adults who wanted to sleep better · vs the same plan made once at the week's start · they rated themselves
The study
Who took part
297 adults in the UK, found online, who wanted to improve their sleep. They were about 43 on average, and 6 in 10 were men; 281 were counted at the end.
What they did
Both groups did a 5-minute online task. They set a bedtime goal, pictured reaching it, named what could get in the way, and wrote if-then plans. One group did it once, on Monday evening. The other group did it every evening for 7 days.
What happened
Each morning, people wrote down when they actually went to bed. The every-evening group went to bed about 16 minutes closer to their planned time. On average they were about 20 minutes late, against about 36 for the once-only group.
Source
An experimental investigation of daily mental contrasting with implementation intentions and goal motives in reducing bedtime procrastination: a registered report (2025)
DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2025.2491593 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action4
Make an if-then plan for your obstacleImplementation intentions or WOOP/MCII: if this obstacle happens, then I will do that.
