Examining sleep impairment among college students

Portia Eastman,  Heidi Weidele and Allison Maloney presented their results of their research conducted with Dr. Sue Adams from the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at the College of Health Sciences Research Event. They had HealthScienceResearchNighthypothesized that student’s mental health (anxiety and depression) would be a more significant predictor of poor sleep than transient variables such as alcohol use.  They conducted a cross-sectional study and calculated frequencies and descriptives to describe the study sample and then ran Pearson’s correlations and built hierarchical multiple regressions models to examine associations among mental illness, alcohol use, and sleep quality. Results indicated that while alcohol use was e a significant factor in predicting poor sleep quality, anxiety and depression proved to have a greater effect. Future research could explore the causative nature between alcohol use, mental health issues, and sleep problems in the sample.