Quality of Sleep Profiles and Mental Health Issues among University Students

Objective  To detect and characterize sleep quality profiles and to analyze their relationship with depression, anxiety, and stress in a sample of 1,861 Chilean students. Materials and Methods  After providing informed consent, the students filled out online questionnaires and received immediate feedback. Hierarchical cluster analyses were conducted to detect sleep quality profiles, which were characterized using the Kruskal-Wallis's test. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to correlate sleep quality profiles with mental health variables. The dendrogram revealed four distinct groups of interest, each with different patterns in the subscales of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results  The results enabled us to establish four sleep quality profiles based on hierarchical cluster analysis, which were, in different ways, associated with the prevalence of symptoms of mental health issues. A profile of good sleeper was found, which presents good overall sleep quality and mild symptoms of mental health issues. The effective sleeper profile presents poor subjective sleep quality and good sleep efficiency, with mild symptoms of mental health issues. The poor sleeper profile presents poor overall sleep quality, sleeping between 5 and 6 hours and presenting moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. The sleeper with hypnotic use profile obtains the most deficient results in sleep quality and presents symptoms of severe mental health issues. Conclusions  The present study revealed a strong association and correlation between sleep quality profiles and mental health issues. Four distinct sleep quality profiles were identified, showing notable differences. This understanding enables the application of targeted preventive strategies according to each profile.