Document Type
Presentation - Oral - to academic peers, less than or equal to 1 hour
Starting right? Time to bed, resilience, and sleep quality
Department
Education & Psychology
Date of Activity
3-6-2014
Abstract
Research has shown an enduring and troubling trend that college students are frequent recipients of occasional sleep disturbances and at least two-thirds of them report poor sleep quality (Orzech et al, 2011). Sleep quality is a perception of feeling rested and refreshed after sleep. Given the complex interplay between sleep and well-being, it is not clear what role psychological factors play in the sleep quality of college students. The purpose of this study was to assess the sleep quality of a sample of students at the beginning of the fall semester, compare selected sleep habits, and sleep quality with the time the students report going to bed. In addition, this study addressed the question as to whether psychological resilience would be related to students, sleep quality and other aspects of their sleep habits. Sixty-three students were recruited to participate and completed a 7-day Sleep Diary, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the 14-Item Resilience Scale. Students slept an average of 7.15 hours (SD = 1.01) during weeknights with more than 60% of the sample reporting feeling refreshed or somewhat refreshed upon awakening. The overall sleep quality score was 5.47 (SD =2.46), indicating a basic level of good sleep quality. Thirty-four of the participants reported going to bed before midnight. Those who went to bed before midnight reported slightly more hours of nightly sleep, being a little more refreshed after sleep, taking fewer minutes to fall asleep, being slightly less resilient, and reported better sleep quality. However these results were not statistically significant. In addition, there were no gender difference in the quantity and quality of students sleep. Although there was a trend for men to show higher resilience and reporting less time to fall asleep, sweeping conclusions cannot be made. Larger samples and more robust designs (e.g. experiments) are needed.
Recommended Citation
WilliamsMorris, R., Trim, R., Kulik, S., Alverez, R. & Li, K (2014, March 6). Starting right? Time to bed, resilience, and sleep quality. Paper session presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA), Nashville, TN.