Relationship between sleep quality and health risk behaviors in undergraduate college students

Abstract

The Sleep Quality Index (SQI) and the Centers for Disease Control's National College Health Risk Survey (NCHRS) were administered to 859 undergraduates at a large southeastern university. Results indicated that 76.6% reported occasional sleep problems and 11.8% experienced poor sleep quality. Among the problems reported, morning tiredness (82%) and (28%) were the most common. Certain health risk behaviors appear to be associated with poor sleep quality including fighting, suicide ideation, smoking, and alcohol use. Implications and limitations of the study are identified. ********** Recently, the impact of insufficient sleep has been identified as a significant public health challenge in the United States. It is currently estimated that 10% of the American population experience chronic insomnia and more than one-quarter report occasionally not getting enough sleep. Insufficient sleep has been linked to a number of chronic disease states and has been identified as a significant contributor to both occupational and traffic accidents. (Division of Adult and Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 2008). Lack of sleep has also been linked to behavioral health risk factors. Data from the National Household Interview Study indicate that in adults aged 18-44 those who reported sleeping less than six hours per night were more likely to smoke and to have five or more drinks of alcohol in one day (Schoenborn & Adams, 2008). Mirroring the broader population, the quantity and quality of college student sleep have changed dramatically over the past several decades. From 1969 to 2001, the mean hours of sleep reported by college students dropped from 7.75 hours per night to 6.65 hours (Hicks, Fernandez, & Pellegrini, 2001a). Dissatisfaction with sleep rose from 24% to 71% between 1978 and 2001 and in 1992 two-thirds (68.3%) of college students reported sleep problems (Hicks, Fernandez, & Pellegrini, 2001b). In 2001, Buboltz and colleagues (Buboltz, Brown, & Soper, 2001) found that 73% of college students studied reported some form of sleep disturbance, with women reporting more problems than men. While college students are certainly prone to the same risks associated with poor sleep in the general population, researchers have explored the specific effects of sleep difficulties on the lives of college students. This research has shown that college students with poor sleep are prone to a number of undesirable outcomes. Diminished sleep quality has been associated with anxiety, depression, and stress (Jensen, 2003; Carney, Edinger, Meyer, et al., 2006). Interrelated with these issues is the positive relationship between sleep quality and academic performance (Kelly, Kelly, & Clanton, 2001; Tsai, & Li, 2004; Campos-Morales, Valencia-Flores, Castano-Meneses, Castaneda-Figueiras, & Martinez-Guerrero, 2005; Becker, Adams, Orr, & Quilter, 2008). With regard to sleep research, college students are a special group because the campus culture presents many unique sleep-related challenges. These can include parties, stress, and work coupled with the communal living arrangements typically associated with dormitories and other student-focused housing (Buboltz, Soper, Brown, & Jenkins, 2002; Jensen, 2003). Sleep issues may be associated with other student risk behaviors related to voluntary lifestyle choices including drinking patterns (Wechsler, Kelley, Weitzman, San Giovanni, & Seibring, 2000) sexual activities (Clemens, Engler, & Chinn, 2004) and other lifestyle choices such as physical activity and working (Trockel, Barnes, & Egget, 2000). In a more general context, sleep length has been shown to be related to life satisfaction (Kelly, 2004) and sleep quality to several measures of health and well being (Pilcher & Ott, 1998). Sleep is interrelated to each of these issues and it has been found to be amendable to successful interventions (Buboltz, et al. …

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