Elsevier

EXPLORE

Volume 17, Issue 2, March–April 2021, Pages 170-177
EXPLORE

Review Article
Determinants of sleep quality in college students: A literature review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2020.11.003Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • This scoping review provides evidence on the determinants of sleep quality among college students.

  • The determinants of sleep quality include lifestyle factors, mental health factors, social factors and physical factors.

  • Sleep quality is greatly influenced by lifestyle factors, followed by mental health factors, social factors and physical factors.

  • Physical activity, as a determinant of sleep quality, has both positive and negative effects.

Abstract

Purpose

To review the various determinants of sleep quality among college students.

Methods

The PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane Library databases were searched with the search string “sleep quality” AND “college students” for articles published between January 2007 and October 2017. Articles were excluded if they (1) examined sleep quality as a risk factor for other outcomes or (2) involved inpatients or participants under medical care.

Results

The 112 identified studies were classified into categories according to the investigated determinants and their effect on sleep quality. Physical activity and healthy social relations improved sleep quality, while caffeine intake, stress and irregular sleep-wake patterns decreased sleep quality. Less consistent results were reported regarding eating habits and sleep knowledge, while proper napping during the day might improve overall sleep quality.

Conclusions

College students are vulnerable to different risk factors for sleep quality. When designing interventions to improve sleep quality among college students, the main determinants need to be taken into consideration.

Keywords

Sleep quality
College students
Sleep determinants
Scoping review

Cited by (0)

1

Present address: Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Debrecen, Hungary