Experimental objective:
If the “compensation for staying up late” time is shifted from late at night to daytime, will the same length of “controllable time” still bring a sense of satisfaction and control?
The experiment adopted the approach of “fixed sleep + daytime self-time” to test whether young people could still achieve psychological compensation effects without staying up late.
Reasons for choosing the experimental subjects：
My stakeholders are divided into two groups: students aged 20 to 24 and young workers aged 24 to 28. This intervention will focus on the student group because this experiment needs to be conducted during the day, when the student group has more time for the test. Workers usually have only a two-hour lunch break, making it difficult for them to conduct intervention experiments.
Problems that can be evaluated/explored by the experiment:
1.Does the “compensatory satisfaction” of Revenge Bedtime Procrastination necessarily depend on the night?
2.If the same level of “autonomy” is provided during the day, can it reduce the willingness to stay up late voluntarily?
3. Is late-night behavior an emotional compensation or a cultural habit?
4. After the intervention, did the group report a decrease in the frequency of staying up late and intrinsic motivation?
Summary:
1. Sleep rhythm and sense of control score
-Participants generally adjusted their sleep to 00:00-03:00 at the beginning of the experiment.
-The sense of control score improved before and after the experiment (for example, it rose from 7 to 8+ in Experiment 4).
-The quality of sleep remains basically stable or slightly improves within a fixed period of time.
2. Comparison of Self-time Experiences (Nighttime vs. Daytime)
-Participants in Experiments 4 and 5 believed that the “stolen time” during the day was rather dull and could not replace the sense of solitude at night.
-Participants in Experiment 6 indicated that although the format was the same, there were more distractions and insufficient atmosphere during the day, resulting in poor compensation effects.
3. Psychological state
-The “controlled time” during the day can relieve anxiety, but there is still a tendency to continue the procrastination at night, especially when one is in a low mood or has a weaker sense of control during the day.
-Most people develop a desire to “persist” after going to bed a few days earlier, but it is still prone to relapse.
Key analysis：
Satisfaction——Some participants reported that the effect of “controlling time during the day” was limited and the atmosphere was not as good as that at night
Sense of control—— effectively enhanced (such as when the score drops from 5 to 9), especially after having planned daytime tasks.
The urge to procrastinate——has not completely vanished, and there are still night-time mobile phone usage and entertainment activities
Late-night vs daytime self-time——Nighttime, due to its environmental atmosphere and lack of distractions, can bring more psychological security, which is hard to replicate during the day.
Conclusion:
1.The compensatory satisfaction of “Revenge Bedtime Procrastination” does not absolutely rely on late at night
Experimental data show that some participants could still obtain similar psychological satisfaction after having disposable time during the day, indicating that the key to compensatory satisfaction lies in “autonomy” rather than the point of time itself. However, a few participants still persisted in late-night activities, indicating that the quiet atmosphere of the night had a unique appeal to them.
2.Providing the same level of “autonomy” during the day can reduce the willingness to stay up late voluntarily
Most participants reported a decrease in the urge to stay up late during the intervention period, especially those who could complete self-selected activities during the day, and the frequency of actively postponing sleep at night was significantly reduced.
3. Late-night behaviors tend to be more about emotional compensation rather than merely cultural habits
Feedback shows that staying up late is often associated with stress relief, emotional release, and regaining a sense of control, rather than being driven solely by social or recreational activities. Cultural factors may reinforce habits, but they are not the main driving force.
4.After the intervention, the overall frequency of staying up late and intrinsic motivation of the group decreased
Data shows that the majority of participants reported a reduction in the frequency of staying up late, with an average bedtime advance of about 30 to 50 minutes. The subjective motivation to stay up late (on the 1-10 subscale) has decreased.
How to get in touch with stakeholders and participate：
1.Contact medium——WeChat
Since most of the participants are in China and I am in the UK, I am unable to conduct one-on-one offline interviews. So all the interviews and the signing of the informed consent forms were conducted online via wechat.
After each Participants document, I attached screenshots of the interview time and made key points of the interview content（Because the interview duration was all close to one hour and some participants refused to record. So I present the interview content in the form of key point records.） And it is accompanied by the signatures of each participant’s informed consent form.
2. Participation records of intervention experiments
Because this intervention experiment has a long cycle and involves the daily behavior records of the participants, I am unable to keep in touch with them all the time. Therefore, to ensure that the participants could smoothly carry out the intervention experiment, each participant recorded their real behavior of participating in the sleep transfer experiment in the form of short videos or photos as evidence.
The following are the forms filled out by each participant and their participation records（video）：
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