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Trial registered on ANZCTR


Registration number
ACTRN12624000272594
Ethics application status
Approved
Date submitted
19/02/2024
Date registered
18/03/2024
Date last updated
4/06/2024
Date data sharing statement initially provided
18/03/2024
Type of registration
Prospectively registered

Titles & IDs
Public title
Investigating the Effects of Future and Present Self Comparisons and Motivation on Bedtime Procrastination
Scientific title
An Experimental Investigation of Daily Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions and Goal Motivation on Bedtime Procrastination
Secondary ID [1] 311552 0
nil known
Universal Trial Number (UTN)
Trial acronym
Linked study record

Health condition
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied:
bedtime procrastination 332913 0
Condition category
Condition code
Mental Health 329627 329627 0 0
Studies of normal psychology, cognitive function and behaviour

Intervention/exposure
Study type
Interventional
Description of intervention(s) / exposure
Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII; Oettingen, 2012).
MCII is an effective strategy for facilitating self-regulation of goal pursuit for various health goals, including unhealthy snacking (Adriaanse et al., 2010), smoking (Mutter et al., 2020), and bedtime procrastination (Valshtein et al., 2020). Importantly, MCII is a promising strategy that is easy-to-apply and cost-effective. However, most of the empirical evidence comes from designs which consist of single training of MCII at the beginning of a study, even though preliminary findings suggest MCII can be more beneficial if adapted for daily use (Marquardt et al. 2017). The goal of this trial is to compare the effectiveness of daily MCII training (experimental group) to single MCII training (comparator group) on bedtime procrastination.
MCII training is completed in four steps. Because this study is concerned about bedtime procrastination, participants will first state their sleep-related goal (e.g., “I will go to sleep at 10 p.m.”). Second, they will imagine achieving this goal in the form a future self and explore the most positive outcomes associated with it (e.g., feeling rested next day). Third, they will engage in mentally contrasting this positive vision with the current reality to identify the obstacles that stand between them and their goal (i.e., desire to watch TV series instead of going to sleep on time). Fourth, participants will develop implementation intentions (i.e., if-then plans) by specifying precise plans for how they will act if faced with the temptation to engage in their current activity (e.g., "if it is 10 p.m., then I will start getting ready for going to sleep”).
We will provide participants in both groups with written instructions that explain the MCII training step by step. The instructions are supported with examples to facilitate the training for the participants. The instructions followed the guidelines provided by Oettingen (https://woopmylife.org) and applied in our previous research (Riddell et al., 2022). As participants will be doing the training themselves, we have made these instructions as clear and understandable as possible. The data collection will take place online, so the participants will be doing the training individually over the internet in their personal spaces. The groups will only differ in the number of times they complete the MCII training. The intervention group will be doing all four steps of the training daily for seven days. The comparator group will only do the training once at the beginning of the study. We will monitor participants’ adherence to the intervention by checking how many days of the week a participant completed the MCII training with the built-in analytics of Qualtrics. The MCII training takes around 5-10 minutes to complete and requires no special equipment or device.

Adriaanse, M. A., Oettingen, G., Gollwitzer, P. M., Hennes, E. P., De Ridder, D. T. D., & De Wit, J. B. F. (2010). When planning is not enough: Fighting unhealthy snacking habits by mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII). European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(7), 1277–1293. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.730
Marquardt, M. K., Oettingen, G., Gollwitzer, P. M., Sheeran, P., & Liepert, J. (2017). Mental contrasting with implementation intentions (MCII) improves physical activity and weight loss among stroke survivors over one year. Rehabilitation Psychology, 62(4), 580–590. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000104
Mutter, E. R., Oettingen, G., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2020). An online randomised controlled trial of mental contrasting with implementation intentions as a smoking behaviour change intervention. Psychology & Health, 35(3), 318–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1634200
Oettingen, G. (2012). Future thought and behaviour change. European Review of Social Psychology, 23(1), 1-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2011.643698
Riddell, H., Sedikides, C., Gucciardi, D. F., Ben, J., Thøgersen-Ntoumani, C., & Ntoumanis, N. (2022). Goal motives and mental contrasting with implementation intentions facilitate strategic goal persistence and disengagement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 52(11), 1094–1116. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12915
Valshtein, T. J., Oettingen, G., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (2020). Using mental contrasting with implementation intentions to reduce bedtime procrastination: two randomised trials. Psychology & Health, 35(3), 275-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/08870446.2019.1652753
Intervention code [1] 328005 0
Lifestyle
Intervention code [2] 328006 0
Behaviour
Comparator / control treatment
In this study, we are interested in comparing the effectiveness of daily MCII trainings to single MCII training on bedtime procrastination. Hence, the comparator group will be doing the MCII training once at the beginning of the study (i.e., first day of the daily data collection) and will carry out all four steps of the MCII training in one session.
Control group
Dose comparison

Outcomes
Primary outcome [1] 337426 0
bedtime procrastination
Timepoint [1] 337426 0
Daily assessed for seven days for both groups
Secondary outcome [1] 431821 0
Daily affect
Timepoint [1] 431821 0
Daily assessed for seven days for both groups

Eligibility
Key inclusion criteria
Participants will be recruited via the online recruitment platform Prolific and be selected from the general public in the UK. They will only be eligible if they are 18 or older. Finally, they must have the intention of improving their sleep health in order to be included in the study.
Minimum age
18 Years
Maximum age
No limit
Sex
Both males and females
Can healthy volunteers participate?
Yes
Key exclusion criteria
1)individuals who report a sleep condition affecting their sleep (e.g., insomnia),
2) those employed in shift work,
3) individuals taking medication that impacts sleep (e.g., beta-blockers),
4) those responsible for overnight care of dependents (e.g., children under 3 years old or the elderly).
Further, we will exclude participants from the dataset who do not provide diary data for more than two days.

Study design
Purpose of the study
Treatment
Allocation to intervention
Randomised controlled trial
Procedure for enrolling a subject and allocating the treatment (allocation concealment procedures)
The allocation of the participants will be concealed from the researchers, as the participant randomisation will be done by the built-in function of online survey platform Qualtrics.
Methods used to generate the sequence in which subjects will be randomised (sequence generation)
The online survey platform Qualtrics uses simple randomisation to randomly assign participants into the groups.
Masking / blinding
Blinded (masking used)
Who is / are masked / blinded?
The people receiving the treatment/s
The people administering the treatment/s

Intervention assignment
Parallel
Other design features
Phase
Not Applicable
Type of endpoint/s
Efficacy
Statistical methods / analysis
We will use multilevel structural equation modelling to compare the two groups because of the nested structure of the data, as we will be collecting daily data from participants over a week. We have determined a sample size of 250 participants based on statistical simulations of multilevel models (Arend & Schäfer, 2019) and expert recommendations (Gabriel et al., 2019). In this study, our primary outcome variable will be bedtime procrastination which will be collected daily by asking participants about their intended and actual time for going to sleep. We will use the discrepancy between these two time points as the measure of bedtime procrastination. The within-person variables will be adaptive goal-regulatory processes, bedtime discrepancy score, and positive affect. The between-person variables will be autonomous goal motives, controlled goal motives, and MCII training. While conducting the analyses, we will control for the effect of baseline sleep descriptives.

Recruitment
Recruitment status
Not yet recruiting
Date of first participant enrolment
Anticipated
20/05/2024
Actual
Date of last participant enrolment
Anticipated
27/05/2024
Actual
Date of last data collection
Anticipated
2/06/2024
Actual
Sample size
Target
250
Accrual to date
Final
Recruitment outside Australia
Country [1] 26151 0
United Kingdom
State/province [1] 26151 0

Funding & Sponsors
Funding source category [1] 315847 0
University
Name [1] 315847 0
Curtin University
Country [1] 315847 0
Australia
Primary sponsor type
Individual
Name
Prof. Daniel Gucciardi
Address
Country
Australia
Secondary sponsor category [1] 317980 0
None
Name [1] 317980 0
Address [1] 317980 0
Country [1] 317980 0

Ethics approval
Ethics application status
Approved
Ethics committee name [1] 314703 0
Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee
Ethics committee address [1] 314703 0
https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/higher-degree-by-research/ethics-safety/human/
Ethics committee country [1] 314703 0
Australia
Date submitted for ethics approval [1] 314703 0
15/12/2023
Approval date [1] 314703 0
01/03/2024
Ethics approval number [1] 314703 0
HRE2024-0086

Summary
Brief summary
Mental contrasting with implementation intentions is a self-regulation strategy that facilitates goal pursuit. It does so by imagining our future self where we achieve the goal that we want to achieve and comparing that image to our present self to identify the obstacles that stand in between those two selves. Previous research has found that mentally contrasting our future and present selves energises us towards reducing that discrepancy. In this study, we argue that MCII can be more beneficial if used daily, compared to single-time training (as how it is done mostly in previous research). To test this hypothesis, we will ask one group of participants to do the MCII training daily for seven days and the other group of participants to do it once at the beginning of the study. We will compare the two groups in how much they reduce their bedtime procrastination levels. Furthermore, we will assess factors like goal motivation and its interplay with the MCII training.
Trial website
Trial related presentations / publications
Public notes

Contacts
Principal investigator
Name 132450 0
Prof Daniel Gucciardi
Address 132450 0
Curtin University GPO Box U1987, Perth Western Australia, 6845
Country 132450 0
Australia
Phone 132450 0
+61 401 914 066
Fax 132450 0
Email 132450 0
d.gucciardi@curtin.edu.au
Contact person for public queries
Name 132451 0
Daniel Gucciardi
Address 132451 0
Curtin University GPO Box U1987, Perth Western Australia, 6845
Country 132451 0
Australia
Phone 132451 0
+61 401 914 066
Fax 132451 0
Email 132451 0
d.gucciardi@curtin.edu.au
Contact person for scientific queries
Name 132452 0
Daniel Gucciardi
Address 132452 0
Curtin University GPO Box U1987, Perth Western Australia, 6845
Country 132452 0
Australia
Phone 132452 0
+61 401 914 066
Fax 132452 0
Email 132452 0
d.gucciardi@curtin.edu.au

Data sharing statement
Will individual participant data (IPD) for this trial be available (including data dictionaries)?
Yes
What data in particular will be shared?
After de-identification of the participants, individual participant data underlying published results will be shared in the project page on Open Science Framework.
When will data be available (start and end dates)?
The data will be available when the manuscript is submitted for publication to the journal, no end date is determined.
Available to whom?
Anyone who wishes to access it
Available for what types of analyses?
Only to achieve the aims in the approved proposal.
How or where can data be obtained?
The data will be obtained through the OSF project page.


What supporting documents are/will be available?

No Supporting Document Provided



Results publications and other study-related documents

Documents added manually
No documents have been uploaded by study researchers.

Documents added automatically
No additional documents have been identified.