Substantial research suggests that the maintenance of health and wellbeing is influenced by one's willingness to delay immediate gratification and to persist in goal-oriented behavior for the sake of later outcomes, an ability known as the delay of gratification. In the current study, delay of gratification behavior was measured in 150 emerging adult college students, aged 18 to 25, using an adapted version of a classic self-delay paradigm that measured how long a participant could wait for a preferred, larger amount of either research credit or money. Participants were categorized as "high delayers" if they were able to wait for 40 minutes or as "low delayers" if they were not able to wait the entire 40 minutes. During the delay, cardiovascular activity in the form of resting heart rate (RHR) and heart rate reactivity (HRV) was recorded. Prior to the delay task, participants completed self-report measures investigating self-regulatory capacities and behaviors. Following the delay task, participants completed a cognitive control task measuring interference in reaction time. Results showed that high delayers had significantly lower RHR values and significantly higher HRV values than low delayers. No significant differences were found between low and high delayers on self-report measures and interference. Results are discussed in the context of identifying which emerging adults may be at greater risk for detrimental health outcomes due to an impaired ability to delay.