Abstract
Diet, sleep quality, and exercise are important determinants of physical, mental, and emotional health. College students are particularly vulnerable to impaired health, as they experience multiple unique stressors associated with college life that impact their ability to engage in healthy sleep, diet, and exercise habits. Our results found that exercise significantly mediated the association between sleep quality and diet. Improved sleep habits may increase a young woman's ability and desire to exercise, thus impacting her diet and nutrition. Findings suggest that clinicians can use a person's motivation in any one domain, or multiple domains, to impact other health domains.
Highlights
Sleep, nutrition, and physical activity are essential components in facilitating physical, mental, emotional and social health.[1]
It is clear how increasing physical activity leads to increased sleep and energy demands, and better sleep may lead to more energy for physical activity, the link between sleep, physical activity and diet, in females, remains a gap in knowledge and requires further investigation.[3]
Though sleep research is robust in adolescents and older adult populations, much less is known about sleep in young adults,[4, 5] those who experience the unique demands of college life and females.[3]
Summary
Nutrition, and physical activity are essential components in facilitating physical, mental, emotional and social health.[1]. Exercise has a significant impact on sleep quality and sleep regulation in adults, but research in college students is limited and has primarily focused on young adults who are “good sleepers” or physically fit college athletes.[23,24,25] In adults, evidence suggests that increased physical activity facilitates homeostatic sleep regulation and stabilizes the circadian system by reducing the need for daytime naps.[24, 26] Increased physical activity can improve general psychological functioning, reducing anxiety and depressive symptoms that interfere with sleep.[8]. It was hypothesized that exercise would mediate the association between sleep quality and diet in college-aged women
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