Are "night owls" or "morning larks" more likely to delay sleep due to problematic smartphone use? a cross-lagged study among undergraduates

Chengjia Zhao; Jiankang He; Huihui Xu; Jingjing Zhang; Guohua Zhang; Guoliang Yu

doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107906

Are "night owls" or "morning larks" more likely to delay sleep due to problematic smartphone use? a cross-lagged study among undergraduates

Addict Behav. 2024 Mar:150:107906. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107906. Epub 2023 Nov 7.

Authors

Chengjia Zhao¹, Jiankang He², Huihui Xu³, Jingjing Zhang⁴, Guohua Zhang⁵, Guoliang Yu⁶

Affiliations

¹ School of Education, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Electronic address: zhcj091@126.com.
² Department of Psychology, School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China. Electronic address: hjk0825@wmu.edu.cn.
³ Department of Psychology, School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China. Electronic address: xuhuihuimint@163.com.
⁴ School of Nursing, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China. Electronic address: 89275956@qq.com.
⁵ Department of Psychology, School of Mental Health, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, China; Zhejiang Provincial Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders, The Affiliated Wenzhou Kangning Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325035, China; Key Laboratory of Alzheimer's Disease of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Aging, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China. Electronic address: zghcnu@wmu.edu.cn.
⁶ Institute of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. Electronic address: yugllxl@sina.com.

PMID: 37984222
DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107906

Abstract

Sleep is an important physiological process, but staying up late has become a worldwide problem, particularly among university students. Sleep procrastination has been found to associated with sleep biorhythms and problematic smartphone use ("PSU") in previous studies. This two-wave study examines the longitudinal reciprocal relationship between PSU and sleep procrastination, together with the moderating role of sleep biorhythms. Participants comprised 1,423 Chinese university students. The results revealed that PSU and sleep procrastination are reciprocally related. Additionally, sleep biorhythms moderated this relationship, as PSU at T1 significantly predicted sleep procrastination at T2 for the morning larks group but not the night owls group. Accordingly, both PSU and sleep biorhythms should be considered when developing interventions for sleep procrastination.

Keywords: Cross-lagged study; Problematic smartphone use; Sleep biorhythms; Sleep procrastination.

MeSH terms

East Asian People
Humans
Periodicity*
Sleep* / physiology
Smartphone*
Students