How late college students go to sleep is influenced by the need to belong

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2025 annual meeting found that bedtime procrastination among college students is socially influenced by the need to belong.

Results show that sleep duration was more than an hour shorter on school nights when college students delayed their bedtime for in-person social leisure activities. On these nights, their bedtime was strongly correlated with the timing of their last objectively measured social interaction with friends. Students within the bedtime procrastination social network scored higher on the need to belong compared with students outside the network. The need to belong also predicted tie formation within the bedtime procrastination social network.

“As far as we know, this is the first study to identify 'need to belong' as a potential driver of social bedtime procrastination and short sleep,” said principal investigator Joshua Gooley, who has a doctorate in neurobiology and is an associate professor with the Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, sleep is essential to health. The AASM recommends that adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health. Bedtime procrastination — choosing to go to bed later despite being aware of its potential negative consequences — reduces the opportunity to get sufficient sleep.

The study involved a sample of 104 university students in a residential college, including 59 women. They wore an actigraph and a proximity beacon watch for two weeks during the school semester to estimate their nocturnal sleep and track when they were near one another. Participants also completed daily diaries. The Need to Belong Scale assessed individual differences in the desire for acceptance and belonging.

Gooley noted that the strength of their findings was surprising.

“We often think of sleep loss as being caused by screen time or work, but social needs, especially in group-living environments, can be just as powerful at influencing sleep,” he said.

The study was supported by funding from the Singapore Ministry of Education and the National Research Foundation in Singapore. The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Wednesday, June 11, during SLEEP 2025 in Seattle. SLEEP is the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

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Abstract Title: Social Bedtime Procrastination Associates with Greater Need to Belong
Abstract ID: 0261
Poster Presentation Date: Wednesday, June 11, 10-10:45 a.m. PDT, Board #025
Presenter: Venetia Kok Jing Tong, doctoral candidate with the Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School

About the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, LLC

The APSS is a joint venture of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society. The APSS organizes the SLEEP annual meeting each June (sleepmeeting.org).

About the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Established in 1975, the AASM is a medical association that advances sleep care and enhances sleep health to improve lives. The AASM membership includes more than 9,500 physicians, scientists, and other health care professionals who help people who have sleep disorders. The AASM also accredits 2,300 sleep centers that are providing the highest quality of sleep care across the country (aasm.org).

About the Sleep Research Society 

The SRS is a professional membership society that advances sleep and circadian science. The SRS serves its members and the field of sleep and circadian research through training and education, and by providing forums for the collaboration and exchange of ideas. The SRS facilitates its goals through scientific meetings and trainee specific programming, and by advocating for federal sleep and circadian research funding. The SRS also publishes the peer-reviewed, scientific journals Sleep and Sleep Advances (sleepresearchsociety.org).