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Abstract
Abstract
Studies have shown that college students regularly do not obtain the suggested hours of sleep. Undergraduates have been shown to have poor sleep hygiene, despite having adequate knowledge about sleep. Sleep habits and quality can coincide with depression and other internalizing symptoms. Improper sleep practices could contribute to poor outcomes, impacting academic performance (i.e. GPA) and psychological well-being (i.e. internalizing symptoms).
Participants included 110 first-year undergraduates who completed an online survey to examine sleep habits and internalizing symptoms (internalizing symptom subscale (anxiety/depression, withdrawal, somatic symptoms) of the Adult Self Report). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to assess total sleep time (TST), sleep efficiency, and quality; the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used to determine sleepiness, and the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) for sleep hygiene. Semester GPA was obtained via college registrar records.
Overall TST was 6.82 hours, sleep efficiency was 89.18%, global PSQI score was 6.34, ESS score was 7.09, and SHI score was 41.81. An ANOVA revealed a significant relationship between TST (4 categories: ≥7, 6.0-6.99, 5.0-5.99, <5 hours) and GPA, F(3,106)= 2.77, p=.045. Students who slept 7 or more hours earned the highest GPA (2.995), which was significantly higher than the 6.0-6.99 (p=.029) and 5.0-5.99 (p=.047) hour sleep groups. Regression analyses showed a positive relationship between PSQI score and internalizing symptoms (F(1,58)=35.80; β=.618, p<.0001), and a negative relationship between PSQI score and GPA (F(1,105)=4.42; β=-.201, p=.038).
Overall, undergraduates reported short sleep, decent sleep efficiency, poor sleep quality, higher than normal daytime sleepiness, and poor sleep hygiene. Results revealed that better sleep quality is related to less internalizing symptoms and better GPA. These results suggest that obtaining better quality sleep is beneficial to students' academic and psychological well-being. Additional work is needed to examine relationships between sleep, GPA, and internalizing symptoms over time.
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