Major
Psychology
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Sleep is a critical part of daily functioning. Recent work has highlighted the consistency of a person’s sleep schedule as an important factor in health (Phillips, 2017). College students often have inconsistent sleep patterns, including irregular increased napping (Adriansen et al., 2017), and increased wake time variability (Roane et al., 2015). These patterns adversely impact cognitive functioning, physical health, and mental health (Bei et al., 2016; Phillips et al., 2017; Murray et al., 2017), including higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Studies, however, have not examined sleep regularity and its association with these symptoms in college students (Fang et al., 2021). The present study will examine sleep regularity in a college sample to explore group differences in sleep regularity, as well as examine the relation between sleep regularity and mood symptoms. We hypothesize that sleep regularity will differ based on demographic variables and that more sleep regularity will be associated with fewer anxiety and depressive symptoms.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr. Amy Bohnert, Professor, Psychology department. Elizabeth Rea, Graduate student, Psychology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms and their Association with Sleep Consistency in Female College Students
Sleep is a critical part of daily functioning. Recent work has highlighted the consistency of a person’s sleep schedule as an important factor in health (Phillips, 2017). College students often have inconsistent sleep patterns, including irregular increased napping (Adriansen et al., 2017), and increased wake time variability (Roane et al., 2015). These patterns adversely impact cognitive functioning, physical health, and mental health (Bei et al., 2016; Phillips et al., 2017; Murray et al., 2017), including higher levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. Studies, however, have not examined sleep regularity and its association with these symptoms in college students (Fang et al., 2021). The present study will examine sleep regularity in a college sample to explore group differences in sleep regularity, as well as examine the relation between sleep regularity and mood symptoms. We hypothesize that sleep regularity will differ based on demographic variables and that more sleep regularity will be associated with fewer anxiety and depressive symptoms.