Vanessa Hill

something else going on there and i think that as a scientist you can get this high level data you can say bedtime procrastination is bad but along the way what we discovered was that no one had actually spoken to people and sat down and said hey what are you doing and why are you doing this and so we did that for a study we did an interview based study

where we just asked people, hey, what's going on?

Tell me about your sleep routine to actually figure out what people were doing.

And this is one of my favorite studies that I have led in my academic career because what we discovered was that people had this psychological need for me time.

And up until that point, a lot of the literature had kind of dismissed that there was any need or driver behind this behavior and that it was just something that should be stopped.

But when people say, I have no autonomy, I need me time, I like to pursue interests, and this is the only time that I have in the day to explore that part of my identity.

Or I want to socialize with my friends.

And so every Wednesday night, every Friday night, every Saturday night, I stay up half my bedtime to do that.

There's this meaning and need that comes out of those conversations that to that point had really been missed.

And then it becomes really complicated as a scientist and someone who cares about sleep health and wants people to have the best possible sleep health for them.

Because you're like, okay, this behavior isn't great for some people, but they also need it to fulfill different psychological needs that they have.

So how can we meet them in the middle in a way?

How can we...

ensure that they are getting the sleep that they need, that they're not tired during the day, because that can have all kinds of flow-on effects for your mood and your relationships and not showing up to work and not being productive and calling in sick and all of these consequences in everything from the workplace and the economy to your personal life.

So how can we help people have good sleep health but also be fulfilled humans?

One of the interesting ones that came up was niche interest.

I thought this was really interesting because a lot of people were watching YouTube videos before they went to bed.

I have a YouTube channel as well.

And so I thought that was really funny because I had never before considered that the time of day when people were watching my YouTube videos.

And it might actually be when they're up in the middle of the night or just before they're going to bed.