Abstract
Objectives
The present study assessed bidirectional associations between basic psychological
needs and several subjective sleep variables across 2 semesters.
Design
Participants completed an online survey twice (7 months apart) as part of a short-term
longitudinal, correlational study.
Participants
Participants were 154 (67.8% female) emerging adults (mean age = 20.02 years, SD =
1.71) from a liberal arts university on the east coast.
Measurements
Survey assessed demographics, perceived fulfillment of basic psychological needs (autonomy,
competence, and relatedness), and several sleep variables (week and weekend sleep
duration, sleep disturbances, daytime dysfunction, and sleep quality; Pittsburgh Sleep
Quality Index).
Results
Data were analyzed using an autoregressive cross-lagged model, which controlled for
level of study, diagnosis of mental illness, self-esteem, social desirability, sleeping
medication, chronotype, conscientiousness, and extraversion. Results indicated significant
unidirectional associations: perceived fulfillment of basic psychological needs predicted longer
week sleep duration (β = .243, P = .008) and better perceived sleep quality (β = −.223, P = .008) 1 semester later, and 1 significant bidirectional association, perceived fulfillment of basic psychological needs, predicted lower
daytime dysfunction, and in turn, lower daytime dysfunction predicted higher perceived
fulfillment of basic psychological needs 1 semester later.
Conclusions
Although many sleep interventions focus on environmental aspects of sleep, our findings
highlight the importance of nurturing university students’ psychological needs as
a potential point of intervention for improving some sleep characteristics among emerging
adults at university.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 10, 2019
Accepted:
February 28,
2019
Received in revised form:
February 24,
2019
Received:
August 2,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2019 Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of National Sleep Foundation. All rights reserved.
