Daytime Sleepiness, Poor Sleep Quality, Eveningness Chronotype, and Common Mental Disorders Among Chilean College Students

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate whether daytime sleepiness, poor sleep quality, and morningness and eveningness preferences are associated with common mental disorders (CMDs) among college students. Methods: A total of 963 college students completed self-administered questionnaires that collected information about sociodemographic characteristics, sleep quality characteristics, CMDs, and other lifestyle behaviors. Results: The prevalence of CMDs was 24.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] [21.5%, 27.1%]) among all students. Prevalence estimates of both excessive daytime sleepiness and poor sleep quality were higher among females (35.4% and 54.4%) than males (22.0% and 45.8%). Cigarette smoking was statistically significantly and positively associated with having CMDs (p = .034). Excessive daytime sleepiness (odds ratio [OR] = 3.65; 95% CI [2.56, 4.91]) and poor sleep quality (OR = 4.76; 95% CI [3.11, 7.29]) were associated with increased odds of CMDs. Conclusion: Given the adverse health consequences associated with both sleep disorders and CMDs, improving sleep hygiene among college students is imperative to public health.

Keywords:

• Chile
• college students
• daytime sleepiness
• mental disorders
• sleep quality

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the Centro de Rehabilitación Club de Leones Cruz del Sur for providing facilities and logistic support throughout the research process. The authors also thank the participating universities for supporting the conduct of this study.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of Chile and received approval from the Institutional Review Boards of Centro de Rehabilitación Club de Leones Cruz del Sur and the University of Washington. The Harvard School of Public Health Office of Human Research Administration granted approval to use the anonymized data set for analysis.

NOTE

For comments and further information, address correspondence to Dr Bizu Gelaye, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, K505, Boston, MA 02115, USA (e-mail: [email protected]).

Additional information

Funding

This research was completed while T.C. was a research training fellow with the Harvard School of Public Health Multidisciplinary International Research Training (HSPH-MIRT) Program. The HSPH-MIRT Program is supported by an award from the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities (T37-MD000149).