Sleep quality among college students: exploring the role of a divine locus of sleep control

To explore (a) how perceptions of personal and divine control over one's sleep schedule combine in distinct ways to predict sleep quality among college students and (b) whether health behaviors and psychological distress mediate the associations between perceptions of sleep control and sleep quality.

We surveyed 1251 students attending a public university in South Texas. All measures were derived from self-reports. Binary logistic regression techniques were used to predict the odds of reporting high-quality sleep in the past month. Mediation analyses were used to decompose the estimated effects of perceptions of sleep control on sleep quality via smoking, drinking, and psychological distress.

Compared to participants who reported both low personal control and low divine control over their sleep schedules, students who reported both high personal control and high divine control exhibited 148% greater odds of reporting high-quality sleep (odds ratio = 2.48; 95% confidence interval = 1.434-4.294). These same participants also showed the highest predicted probabilities of reporting high-quality sleep (22%) compared to students with other sleep control orientations. Mediation analyses indicated that reduced psychological distress partially accounted for these differences, whereas smoking and drinking behaviors did not.

College students who felt they and God both shared full control over their sleep schedules reported the highest quality sleep, which was partially explained by their lower average levels of psychological distress.