Sleep regulation as a function of boredom proneness

Boredom proneness has been cast as a challenge of self-regulatory control such that the highly boredom prone struggle to launch into action despite the desire to do so. This has typically been explored in the context of cognitive and affective dysregulation. Here, in two samples ( n = 256 and 309), we explored the relation between trait boredom proneness and sleep regulation. In both samples, higher boredom proneness was associated with poor sleep quality. In step-wise hierarchical regressions, boredom proneness reliably predicted poor sleep quality, but was only a significant predictor of bedtime procrastination in Sample #2. In our second sample, boredom proneness also predicted poor sleep hygiene. In that sample, we used mediation analyses to explore the role of rumination in the relation between both state and trait boredom (as predictors) and sleep quality and hygiene (as outcome variables). Results showed that the tendency to ruminate acted only as a partial mediator in these relations. Results are discussed in the broader context of self-regulatory models of state and trait boredom.