Associations Between Sleep Hygiene and Insomnia Severity in College Students: Cross-Sectional and Prospective Analyses
Section snippets
Participants and Procedures
All participants were recruited from undergraduate students enrolled in the introductory psychology course at a private university in the northeastern United States. Online surveys were completed by the participants at a time and place of their own choosing and they received partial course credit for completing the study. Participants were required to be 18 years or older to enroll. Electronic informed consent was obtained from each participant and all study measures and procedures were reviewed
Descriptive Analyses
As shown in Table 1, on average, both samples of college students showed subclinical levels of insomnia severity (Study 1 M = 8.67 [SD = 4.88]; Study 2 Time 1 M = 8.66 [SD = 5.36]; Study 2 Time 2 M = 7.50 [SD = 5.39]). A paired sample t-test showed that students from Study 2 reported on average lower insomnia severity at Time 2 than at Time 1, t(156) = 2.88, p = .005, indicating a small decrease in insomnia severity over time (Cohen’s d = .22). In Study 1, 12% (n = 64) of students met criteria for clinical insomnia,
Discussion
The present study examined the prevalence of a wide range of SH behaviors and their relationships with insomnia severity both cross-sectionally and prospectively in two independent samples of college students. To our best knowledge, this is the first study that documented prevalence of a full list of SH behaviors (as opposed to an aggregated SH score) and their association with insomnia severity in this population. SH behaviors found to be relatively common (> 3 days per week) in our two samples
Conflict of Interest Statement
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
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