The impact of physical exercise on sleep quality among college students: a moderated mediation model

To explore the relationship between physical exercise and sleep quality among college students, and to examine the mediating role of mobile phone addiction tendency and the moderating role of psychological resilience, in order to reveal the underlying pathway linking physical exercise and sleep quality.

A sample of 1,583 college students from Fuzhou, Fujian Province, was recruited and assessed using the Physical Activity Rating Scale-3 (PARS-3), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale for College Students, and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). The moderated mediation model was tested using SPSS 27.0 and the PROCESS macro Models 4 and 7.

(1) Physical exercise was significantly negatively associated with sleep quality (β = -0.19, p < 0.001). (2) Mobile phone addiction tendency mediated the relationship between physical exercise and sleep quality, with an indirect effect of -0.03, 95% CI [-0.04, -0.02], accounting for 13.64% of the total effect. (3) Psychological resilience significantly moderated the relationship between physical exercise and mobile phone addiction tendency (β = -0.31, 95% CI [-0.35, -0.27], p < 0.001; index of moderated mediation = -0.10, 95% CI [-0.12, -0.09]). Simple slope analysis revealed a crossover interaction pattern: physical exercise was positively associated with mobile phone addiction tendency among students with low psychological resilience (β = 0.18, 95% CI [0.13, 0.23], p < 0.001), but negatively associated with mobile phone addiction tendency among those with high psychological resilience (β = -0.36, 95% CI [-0.41, -0.31], p < 0.001).

Physical exercise is significantly associated with better sleep quality among college students, both directly and indirectly through its association with lower mobile phone addiction tendency. Psychological resilience moderates the direction of the first stage of this indirect pathway, such that physical exercise is associated with reduced mobile phone addiction tendency only among individuals with moderate to high psychological resilience. These findings provide empirical evidence for developing targeted, resilience-informed exercise-based intervention strategies to promote sleep health among college students.