A Psychometric Scale For Assessing Sleep Procrastination Behaviour

Sleep procrastination, particularly the "revenge" variant motivated by reclaiming personal time, is a growing behavioural health concern. However, no validated psychometric instrument exists for the Indian population. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the preliminary psychometric properties, specifically the reliability and itemlevel discriminative ability, of a new scale measuring sleep procrastination behaviour. The study sample comprised 347 college-going young adults aged 18-24 years (M ≈ 21.4 years; 199 females, 148 males) recruited from various universities in India. All participants scored 20 or more on the original Bedtime Procrastination Scale, indicating the presence of bedtime procrastination behaviour. A cross-sectional, quantitative design was employed. A self-constructed 43-item Sleep Procrastination Behaviour Scale was developed based on existing literature. Participants completed the scale online. For item analysis, total scores on the new scale were used to create a lower-scoring group (n=90) and a higher-scoring group (n=90) using the 27th percentile rule. Reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and independent samples t-tests were used to assess internal consistency and item discrimination. The scale demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .960). A statistically significant difference was observed between the lower and higher procrastination groups on total scores, t(178) = -32.19, p < .001, with the higher group (M = 183.64) scoring substantially higher than the lower group (M = 105.58). Item-wise analysis revealed that 37 out of 43 items significantly differentiated between the two groups (p < .001). Notably, Item 14 ("I feel refreshed and energetic when I wake up the next morning") showed no significant difference (p = .753), indicating that even high procrastinators are aware of negative sleep outcomes. The newly developed Sleep Procrastination Behaviour Scale demonstrates strong preliminary reliability and discriminative validity. It is a suitable instrument for assessing bedtime procrastination tendencies in the Indian young adult context, filling a critical gap in culturally relevant psychometric assessment.