I have been making whole wheat pizza dough in my bread machine and I usually proof my yeast before I make the dough which ends up turning out pretty good. I have been trying to reduce the amount of time I have to wait on the bread which includes putting water/salt covering with flour and yeast on top and setting the bread machine to delay they cycle until later. this method allows me to have the dough done when I come home from work. I tried it today and it seemed like my dough didn't rise as much.

I was wondering if this might be caused by me not proofing the active dry yeast and if so would instant yeast solve this problem.

Also if I switch to instant yeast does it die off faster than active dry the dough cycle is 1hr 30min (2min mix/3min knead/5 min rest/ 20 min knead/ 1hr rise) would this be to long and cause the yeast to die off or does instant have the same lifespan as active dry.

Thank you in advance for your help.