Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution-Based Digital Interventions for Sleep Procrastination in Chinese...

Sleep procrastination is a prevalent and detrimental behavior among university students. While digital interventions offer scalable solutions, they often lack a robust theoretical foundation and fail to differentiate themselves from clinical insomnia treatments.

This pilot study examined the feasibility and preliminary effects of a novel intervention grounded in the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution (I-PACE) model, comparing online delivery with traditional offline delivery and a control group in reducing sleep procrastination.

Forty-six students with high sleep procrastination were allocated to online (n=16), offline (n=16), or control (n=14) groups. The 8-week intervention targeted I-PACE components. Subjective and objective (wearable) measures were collected at baseline, postintervention, and a 2-month follow-up.

For subjective sleep procrastination, all groups improved similarly, with no significant group × time interaction. For objective sleep procrastination, a significant group × time interaction emerged (Wald χ²16=28.79, P=.03), with the online group showing numerically earlier sleep onset in later intervention weeks. The online group's mean approached zero at week 7 (-0.05 h) but did not differ significantly from zero (P=.96) and rebounded at week 8. No between-group comparisons survived Bonferroni correction at any single week.

This pilot study provides preliminary evidence that an app-based, I-PACE-grounded intervention is associated with a differential objective sleep timing trajectory. The specific mechanisms remain to be tested. Subjective improvements were comparable across conditions. Adequately powered trials with formal mediation testing are needed.