Sleep procrastination and adolescent subjective well-being: The mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effect of physical exercise

Adolescent subjective well-being, a key topic in positive psychology and developmental psychology, has attracted increasing attention regarding its formation mechanisms. Against this backdrop, various factors influencing well-being have gradually entered the research landscape. Sleep procrastination is a prevalent phenomenon among adolescents, often closely associated with emotional exhaustion and frequently accompanied by decline in subjective well-being. Although existing studies have explored the relationship between sleep and well-being, the specific mechanisms through which emotional state and physical exercise operate within this relationship remain underexamined. This study employed a random sampling method to conduct an online questionnaire survey among students from multiple schools, collecting 505 valid responses. The proposed hypothetical model was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed a significant negative association between sleep procrastination and subjective well-being, with emotional exhaustion playing a partial mediating role between the two. Furthermore, physical exercise moderated both the pathway from sleep procrastination to emotional exhaustion and the direct pathway to subjective well-being, indicating it serves a protective role in mitigating emotional depletion and improving psychological well-being. This study is the first to theoretically and empirically validate the multi-path moderating effect of physical exercise in the relationship between sleep procrastination and subjective well-being, addressing a gap in the systematic examination of behavioral regulatory factors in existing literature. These findings elucidate the complex linkage between sleep procrastination and adolescent subjective well-being, thereby providing both theoretical foundations and practical implications for developing psychological intervention strategies integrating sleep health and physical activity.