Academic stress profiles and bedtime procrastination among college students: the mediating role of rumination and the moderating effect of perceived stress

Background: While academic stress is a recognized predictor of sleep disturbances, traditional variable-centered research often obscures the population heterogeneity within this relationship. Adopting a person-centered perspective, this study identified latent configurations of academic stress among college students and examined the psychological mechanisms linking these profiles to bedtime procrastination (BPS). Methods: A sample of 741 Chinese university students completed validated measures of academic stress, rumination dimensions, perceived stress, and BPS. Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) was utilized to classify academic stress subtypes. Subsequently, a moderated mediation model was tested to evaluate the parallel mediating roles of two rumination dimensions-symptom rumination and reflection-and the moderating effect of perceived stress. Results: < 0.01) but remained insignificant at low levels. Conclusion: These findings underscore the dual nature of rumination and the "gating" role of subjective appraisal in the stress-sleep relationship. The results suggest that stratified interventions targeting specific cognitive-emotional deficits within different stress profiles are essential for mitigating sleep self-regulation failures among university studencvts.