Twenty weekly therapy sessions helped students put off going to bed less
Who it’s about: Students
- Helped
After 20 weekly sessions on hard feelings and thoughts, students put off bedtime less than waiting students for three months.
- Action: Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywaytested
- Action: Challenge unhelpful thoughtstested
- Rule: With a coach or therapistused
- Rule: In weekly sessionsused
Small randomised trial of 32 university students who put off bedtime · vs students still waiting for the therapy · they rated themselves
The study
Who took part
32 university students in Zanjan, Iran, chosen because they often put off going to bed. None had serious sleep problems. Half of each group were men, and they were about 22 to 24 on average.
What they did
16 students had 20 weekly one-hour sessions alone with a psychologist. They learned to notice and cope with hard feelings, to question unhelpful thoughts and to face things they avoided. The other 16 students waited for the therapy.
What happened
The therapy group said they put off going to bed less at the end and three months later. The waiting group stayed about the same. The paper doesn't say how many students dropped out. Its effect sizes may compare each group with itself rather than the two groups.
Source
Transdiagnostic CBT for bedtime procrastination: a pilot randomized controlled trial targeting behavioral, cognitive, and emotional dimensions (2025)
DOI: 10.1186/s40359-025-03131-y (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action2
Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywayEmotion regulation: name, accept or tolerate the feeling a task brings, then begin.
Action5
Challenge unhelpful thoughtsCognitive restructuring of beliefs such as perfectionism or catastrophising.
