That’s the finding of a new large-scale study by researchers at Uppsala University, the Karolinska Institute, and Sophiahemmet University in Sweden. They say the common habit of procrastination points to deeper health problems than researchers previously thought. These include depression, anxiety, different types of pain, and poor sleep quality.
Quick overview: Psychologists define procrastination as the tendency to repeatedly delay important or urgent tasks, creating a range of problems. Procrastination happens in the gap between deciding to start working and actually starting. Procrastination is not the same as laziness. A lazy person doesn’t plan to do the work, isn’t concerned about not finishing, and chooses rest instead.
What the Researchers Discovered
A team of Swedish scientists enrolled 3,525 students from eight universities in Stockholm and the surrounding area in a study that lasted just over two years. Volunteers were divided into groups based on self-reported levels of procrastination, according to The Independent. Every three months, participants filled out questionnaires about their procrastination and its possible consequences.
Responses were rated on a five-point scale according to how frequently participants procrastinated. To get a comprehensive picture, researchers summarized and analyzed the survey data. After nine months, researchers drew initial conclusions about participants’ worsening health based on their self-reported procrastination.
More than half of the students reported mental health problems—depression, anxiety, and stress—along with significant pain (mainly in the neck, upper or lower back, arms, and legs) and poor sleep quality. Participants also reported lifestyle habits that accompanied their procrastination, such as low physical activity, skipping breakfast, and using tobacco, cannabis, and alcohol. Students also linked procrastination to psychosocial factors like loneliness and financial difficulties.
New Findings on the Harmful Habit of Procrastination
The researchers found that higher levels of procrastination were linked to significantly worse symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress.
Participants with the highest procrastination scores were more likely to report shoulder and arm pain, loneliness, financial difficulties, and poor sleep quality.
That link held even after the researchers adjusted for age, gender, baseline physical and mental health, and parental education.
The team emphasized the need to consider procrastination when assessing students’ health, since the habit is especially common in this group.
Published in JAMA Network Open, the study frames procrastination as a source of several hidden risks to mental and physical health.
