Predictors of Sleep Disturbances among College Students: Interplay of Media Exposure and Health Related Quality of Life

This study ascertains the association between media exposure, health related quality of life, and sleep disturbance among college students. The sample consisted of 300 private and public college students with equal number of men and women. The age range of participants was between 18 to 22 years. The cross-sectional research strategy following purposive sampling technique was used for sample selection. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, (Buysse, Renolds, Monk, Berman, & Kupfer, 1989) and SF-36v2 Health Survey (Ware, Snow, Kosinski, & Gandek, 1993) along with self-constructed demographic sheet including questions about media exposure was used to gather the data. Findings indicated that media exposure was positively associated with sleep disturbance; whereas, health related quality of life (physical health and mental health) were negatively associated with sleep disturbance. Furthermore, the outcomes showed that aging, increased sleep hours during afternoon, sleep hours during night, media exposure, and declined health related quality of life were found to be significant predictors of sleep disturbance. Gender differences towards sleep disturbances were nonsignificant. This study would be the stepping stone for the future researches to identify sleep related complications experienced by the students.