AP42362

AP42362

Human Growth and Development

Not getting enough sleep?

 Lack of sleep can scramble our mental functions, lack of sleep also has long term health consequences, in a study held in the Netherlands research was conducted to try and find out what is stopping us from getting enough sleep. The research was conducted by Floor Kroese and her colleagues, they used over two thousand participants ranging in age from 16 to 93,had no sleep disorders and did not work any night shifts. The focus of the study was not insomnia, night shift work or baby care, they look at bedtime procrastination, you know you should go to bed, yet stay up working or playing games. They had the group keep a sleep diary for seven days and found they got an average of 7.2 hours of sleep. 17.5% of the participants felt they did not get enough sleep, after looking at other factors such as age, being young it was found that 12.7% of participants sleep variation was due bedtime procrastination. Lack of self control was associated with not getting enough sleep. Just like making bad eating chooses, or not getting enough exercise not getting enough sleep is on par with other bad health chooses.

Kroese, F., Evers, C., Adriaanse, M., & de Ridder, D. (2014). Bedtime procrastination: A  self-regulation perspective on sleep insufficiency in the general population Journal of  Health Psychology.