The academic years are a period of vulnerability when considering sleep problems and
mental health. Growing evidence suggests poor sleep patterns are related to impaired
academic life and lower psychological well-being. The aim of this study was to explore
the importance of sleep habits and report the associations of sleep problems with
quality of academic life and different dimensions of mental health (e.g. worries,
anxiety, self-regulation and resilience) in a large sample of college students. The
HBSC/JUnP data base comprises a representative sample of 2991 college students (n=2203;
73.7% women), aged from 18 to 35 years old (22.43±3.83). Participants socio-demographic
characteristics included sex and age. Besides, participants were inquired about sleep
duration, characteristics of their sleep habits, questions about quality academic
life, namely feeling bored in university, pressure from academic work and academic
performance perception and mental health, namely worries, anxiety, self-regulation
and resilience. Results showed most young people report an average value for sleep
habits (M=4.41; SD=1.46) and that they sleep an average of 7 hours a night. More than
half of the young people report either being affected by difficulty falling asleep,
showing signs of sleep onset insomnia (67.7%). The conducted analyses indicated that
the difficulty falling asleep (having insomnia) was associated with poor/reasonable
academic performance perception, higher levels of concerns and anxiety, and lower
levels of self-regulation and resilience, thus jeopardizing the mental health of college
students. In turn, that characteristics of sleep was also associated with poor sleep
habits. In conclusion, this study showed that poor sleep habits were associated with
a worse level of academic performance perception and low levels of mental health among
college students in Portugal. Universities offer enormous potential as settings to
promote sleep-health programs since they can reach many young people who are future-oriented
and willing to learn. There is then the need for academic researchers, teaching staff
and health professionals working for college students health, to develop and test
a wide array of sleep-promoting interventions (e.g., education classes, online programs,
adjustment of class time), thus preventing negative secondary outcomes.
Sleep - Quality of academic life - Mental Health - College students - Portugal
