Sleep quality in college students: a study about the contribution of lifestyle, academic performance and general well-being

Abstract

Sleep assumes a major role in human functioning. The aim of this study was to describe features concerning sleep quality, lifestyle, general well-being and academic satisfaction/ performance in college students; characterize the relationship between sleep quality and several aspects related to lifestyle, levels of personal/social well-being and academic performance/satisfaction and to identify predictive factors of poor sleep quality in this population. The sample of this descriptive, cross-sectional, analytic study was collected during six days, in November 2009. 574 students from Minho University completed an online survey about sleep habits. The questionnaire included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and an author-designed group of questions about lifestyle, academic performance and general wellbeing. All statistic analysis was performed using Statistic Package for the Social Sciences version 17. From the assessed students, 64.8% presented poor sleep quality. An association was found between those subjects and lower levels of academic success and satisfaction, worse adaptation to scholastic demands, worse opinion about conditions of the place where sleep occurs, more physical and psychological symptoms, learning problems, daily and academic organization problems and poorer relationships with peers and intimate relationships. Logistic regression analyses identified smoking habits and caffeine intake, a higher punctuation on “Symptoms/difficulties/problems” index and less satisfaction with life and support received from social relationships as predictors of poor sleep quality. Still, 53.3% of students considered the quality of their sleep as fairly good, and the vast majority (88.7%) denied use, in the previous month, of psychotropic medication with effects on sleep. Nonetheless, about 10.1% of the subjects admitted having resorted to any kind of expert help for problems related to sleep. In Portugal, there is still a lack of information regarding this subject. Results showed that poor sleep quality is present at alarming levels in this college student population. The recognition of the factors involved in the deterioration of sleep quality in this group, namely trough prospective design studies, would contribute to outline prevention and intervention health programs, improving global assistance to these subjects. The authors thank to all participants and institutions involved in this study.