Library Dissertation Showcase

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the relative importance of predictors on sleep outcomes

  • Year of Publication:
  • 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on the lives of all the UK population, with previous research indicating that consequently this has impacted sleep, showing increased cases of insomnia and other sleep related problems. Within the research conducted on the Covid-19 pandemic, university students as a group have been largely overlooked. This is cause for concern as previous research has highlighted the difference in student lifestyle and sleep habits compared to the general population, indicating a lack of generalisability to the student population. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the relative importance of student lifestyle factors on sleep outcomes. This was tested through a repeated measures, selfreport, set of questionnaires, examining in particular, how the predictors stress, technology and timetabling affected the sleep quality and quantity of students and how these factors changed from before the Covid-19 pandemic to during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data was analysed through traditional methods and also through structural equation modelling, to ascertain the relative importance of the predictors on sleep quality and quantity and compare the two years to establish the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on these factors. Results contradicted previous general population studies on the Covid-19 pandemic, finding that student sleep improved during the pandemic, despite higher stress, increased technology use and a more irregular timetable. It suggested that general population studies should not be generalized to the student population, and university students should be considered independently when testing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on sleep outcomes. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed accordingly.

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