Correlates of Qualtiy Sleep and Academic Performance

Sleep problems bave become epidemic aod traditional research has discovered many causes of poor sleep. The purpose of this study was to complement existiog research by using a salutogenic or health origins framework to investigate the correlates of good sleep. The aoalysis for this study used the National College Health Assessment data that included 54,111 participaots at 71 institutions. Participaots were raodomly selected or were in raodomly selected classrooms. Results of these aoalyses indicated that males aod females who reported "good sleep" were more likely to have engaged regularly in physical activity, felt less exhausted, were more likely to have a healthy Body Mass Index (BMI), aod also performed better academically. In addition, good male sleepers experienced less anxietY aod had less back pain. Good female sleepers also had fewer abusive relationships aod fewer broken bones, were more likely to have been nonsmokers aod were not binge drinkers. Despite the limitations of this exploratory study, these results are compelling, however they suggest the need for future research to clarify the identified relationships.