Does a Sleep Workshop Reduce Student Stress?

Abstract

Increasing mental illness among college students continues to be a critical issue. College life is often a time of great transition, contributing to and exacerbating students’ rising stress, anxiety, and other mental health struggles. Poor sleep habits may develop during college, and poor sleep quality can amplify stress. To explore how institutions might help students struggling with stress, we conducted this study to examine whether a sleep-focused workshop would reduce stress levels in students at a Pacific Northwest community college. We generated an online pre- and post-workshop survey consisting of the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Sleep Quality Scale, which was distributed to participants before and after a sleep workshop presented by the college’s psychology department. It was hypothesized that (1) poor sleep quality correlates to higher student stress levels, and (2) that the sleep workshop intervention would reduce stress levels. Sleep quality and stress were found to be moderately negatively correlated be-fore the workshop, r(57) = -.482, p < .001, and after the workshop, r(40)= -.500, p < .001. Additionally, there was a statistically significant decrease in stress after the workshop (M = 26.50, SD = 7.91) compared to before the workshop (M = 28.77, SD = 7.41), t(56) = 29.33, p < .001. These results provide more insight into the utility of sleep workshops for students and whether they can help students manage stress and im-prove their sleep quality, potentially improving student mental health by lowering stress and improving quality of life and education overall.