Effects of comprehensive sleep management on sleep quality in university students in mainland China

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the effects of comprehensive sleep management on sleep quality in university students in mainland China. Eighty-four full-time university students were randomly allocated to the intervention group (n = 42), which received comprehensive sleep management, and the control group (n = 42) with no intervention. The comprehensive sleep management program was delivered by a researcher in lecture sessions (45 min per session) over a consecutive 3-day period. The first session included sleep hygiene education and music therapy, the second session included stimulus control therapy, and the third session included progressive muscle relaxation training. Based on sleep hygiene education, the students were instructed to do music therapy and progressive muscle relaxation training (i.e. taking a deep breath, and contracting and relaxing 16 muscle groups) within 1 h before night-time sleep daily, 30 min per session; stimulus control therapy was conducted through six steps and repeated daily. Sleep quality was assessed using the Chinese version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. After 1 month, between-group comparisons showed that the intervention group had improvement in subjective sleep quality (mean difference: −0.31, 95% confidence interval: −0.58, −0.04) (P = 0.027), sleep latency (−0.60 [−0.86, −0.33]) (P < 0.001), daytime dysfunction (−1.14 [−1.39, −0.89]) (P < 0.001), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index total score (−1.98 [−2.64, −1.31]) (P < 0.001). The comprehensive use of sleep hygiene education, music therapy, stimulus control therapy, and progressive muscle relaxation training has positive effects on improving sleep quality in university students.