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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Health Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1396579
This article is part of the Research Topic Health Promotion in the Universities and Other Educational Settings View all 13 articles

The differing relationships between academic discipline, sleep hygiene, and dysfunctional sleep attitudes on sleep quality and duration in Canadian university students

Provisionally accepted
Tara Kuhn Tara Kuhn 1*Sameena Karsan Sameena Karsan 2Jennifer J. Heisz Jennifer J. Heisz 2Laura E. Middleton Laura E. Middleton 1
  • 1 University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada
  • 2 McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: This study sought to understand how university student's academic discipline relates to sleep factors including attitudes, hygiene, quality, and duration. Methods: Using a cross-sectional approach, a 30-minute survey was advertised to students at two Canadian universities in March of 2022. Sleep measures included the Dysfunctional Beliefs and Attitudes Scale, the Sleep Hygiene Index, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Insomnia Severity Index. Academic discipline was categorized into four groups: Health, Arts, Sciences, and Engineering. Multiple linear regressions were used to investigate 1) the effect of academic discipline on sleep measures, and 2) the effect of academic discipline, dysfunctional sleep attitudes, and sleep hygiene practices on insomnia, sleep quality and duration. Results: 1566 students completed the survey (69.4% women; 80.3% undergraduates). Compared to Health students, Art students had worse dysfunctional sleep attitudes, hygiene, quality, and insomnia severity (p <0.001). This relationship disappeared after controlling for differences in mental health (p ≥ 0.05). Art students had longer sleep durations (p <.01), whereas Engineering students had shorter sleep durations (p <.05). When dysfunctional sleep attitudes and hygiene were included in the model, both academic discipline (p <.05) and sleep hygiene (p <.001) were associated with sleep duration. Sleep hygiene and attitudes were also associated with sleep quality and insomnia severity (p <.001), while academic discipline was not (p ≥ .05). Discussion: These results suggest differences in sleep quality across academic discipline are impacted by dysfunctional sleep attitudes, sleep hygiene, and mental health, whereas differences in sleep duration appear to be independent of these factors. Overall, students in different academic disciplines have unique relationships with sleep and thus may require targeted approaches to improve their sleep. Future interventions should focus on supporting sleep hygiene and attitudes to improve students' sleep and well-being.

    Keywords: Sleep, insomnia, Sleep Hygiene, Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice, academic discipline, Mental Health

    Received: 05 Mar 2024; Accepted: 10 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kuhn, Karsan, Heisz and Middleton. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Tara Kuhn, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.