Notes
This book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical advice, and it's no substitute for a GP or a sleep clinic that knows you. The NHS guidance I mention is for England as I found it in September 2026. No streaming service is named and none is recommended or criticised.
I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 25 and 26. The drama with the body in the lake, the lighthouse, the countdown, the partner on the sofa and the seven o'clock alarm are invented.
Before you start. The NHS pages on depression, for the two-week guide, and on insomnia, for when to see a GP, as verified for earlier books in this series.
Chapter 3. Johnson and Goldstein, "Do defaults save lives?", Science 302, 2003, pages 1338 to 1339. PubMed holds no summary of this paper, and the description of its organ donation comparison is from general knowledge of a widely cited paper, which the chapter says. The application to a countdown is mine.
Chapter 4. Walton-Pattison, Dombrowski and Presseau, "'Just one more episode': frequency and theoretical correlates of television binge watching", Journal of Health Psychology 23, 2018, pages 17 to 24. Eighty-six people, a survey, which the chapter says is small.
Chapter 7. Exelmans and Van den Bulck, "Binge viewing, sleep, and the role of pre-sleep arousal", Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine 13, 2017, pages 1001 to 1008. Four hundred and twenty-three adults aged eighteen to twenty-five, a survey, which can't establish cause, as the chapter says. Granow, Reinecke and Ziegele, "Binge-watching and psychological well-being: media use between lack of control and perceived autonomy", Communication Research Reports 35, 2018. A survey of 499. The application of both to twenty to midnight is mine.
Chapter 8. Johnson and Goldstein as above. The account of the old default is my description of how the technology worked.
Chapter 10. The earlier book in this series on staying up late is You were tired at ten.
Chapter 11. Chang, Aeschbach, Duffy and Czeisler, "Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, 2015, pages 1232 to 1237. E-readers, not televisions, and the chapter says so. Used in the earlier book on staying up late. Exelmans and Van den Bulck as above.
Chapter 13. Exelmans and Van den Bulck as above, for the 80.6 per cent. Hale and Guan, "Screen time and sleep among school-aged children and adolescents: a systematic literature review", Sleep Medicine Reviews 21, 2015, pages 50 to 58. Sixty-seven studies, with the causation caveat the chapter repeats.
Chapter 18. Exelmans and Van den Bulck, Walton-Pattison and colleagues, and Granow and colleagues as above. The NHS insomnia page, for seven to nine hours. The earlier book on staying up late as above.
Chapter 19. Kumar, Killingsworth and Gilovich, "Waiting for merlot: anticipatory consumption of experiential and material purchases", Psychological Science 25, 2014, pages 1924 to 1931, as verified for the earlier book You didn't want it yesterday. The application to episodes is mine.
Chapter 22. The earlier book on staying up late as above, for the end time and the second wind. The NHS insomnia page as above. Chang and colleagues as above.
Chapter 23. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule hasn't been tested as a package, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.
Chapter 24. Hale and Guan as above. The NHS pages on depression and insomnia as above. The earlier book on raising things with a partner is Say it this week.