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Abstract Introduction College students are notorious for inconsistent sleep schedules and poor sleep hygiene, which can influence mental health and academic success. Many intervention programs seek to improve college student sleep quality by educating them on the importance of sleep and healthy sleep behaviors; however, it remains an open question whether poor sleep behaviors are due to a lack of knowledge about sleep. To inform this issue, we developed a test of sleep knowledge and compared outcomes to standard scales of sleep duration and quality. Methods Participants (N=130, 21 male) included full-time undergraduate students (mean age=19.65, SD=1.54 years) who completed a series of online questionnaires examining sleep quality and duration (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI), sleep hygiene (Sleep Hygiene Index, SHI), and a new measure of sleep knowledge (Sleep Knowledge, Information, and Values Test, SKIV). The SKIV is a self-reported questionnaire that includes questions about weekday and weekend sleep duration, sleep quality, confidence and source of sleep health knowledge, perceived importance of sleep education in different populations, and basic sleep hygiene and sleep health questions. Results Average sleep duration (PSQI) was 7.00 hours per night (SD=1.36) and sleep quality was poor (PSQI M=6.86, SD=3.33). Participants scored an average 13.47 out of 20 points (SD=3.59) on multiple choice and multi-answer questions about general sleep knowledge (SKIV). SKIV sleep knowledge test scores and SKIV ratings of importance of sleep education were positively correlated with SHI scores (M=21.53, SD=7.56; r=.309, p.001 and r=.267, p=.002), but not PSQI global sleep quality (r=-.025, p=.783; r=.005, p=.954) or PSQI sleep duration (r=.065, p=.463; r=.071, p=.423). SHI scores were significantly correlated with PSQI sleep quality (r=.467, p.001). Conclusion College students with greater sleep knowledge reported engaging in better sleep hygiene practices, but still showed short duration or poor quality sleep. Therefore, future interventions should go beyond sleep education to changing environmental features (e.g., noise and light in dormitories) and institutional practices (early class start times, midnight homework deadlines) that hinder sleep health in students. Support (if any) None.
Reynolds et al. (Sat,) studied this question.