Sleep Hygiene Practices and Subjective Well-Being as Predictors of High School Students\u27 Obtaining Sufficient Sleep During the School Week

Sleep is critically important to human health. However, the quantity and quality of sleep can vary within and among individuals over time, affecting overall wellness. Adolescence is a critical time for development, both for physical health, as well as health-related behaviors and habits. Physical health is known to be influenced by health-related behaviors such as sleep hygiene, which promotes good sleep. Physical health and engagement in health-related behaviors also are known to influence other aspects of well-being, namely subjective well-being, or happiness. Adolescents are often characterized by their changing sleep needs, patterns, and habits. This study is a secondary analysis of data, and utilized data already collected as part of a larger study. This non-experimental observational study utilized self-reported measures to characterize the sleep patterns in 450 high school students to examine the typical hours of sleep per night students report obtaining, and the extent to which they report obtaining the recommended hours of sleep per night. The study also examined demographic characteristics, sleep hygiene factors, and subjective well-being as potential predictors of sufficient sleep (defined as 8 or more hours per night). This study found an average of 7 hours and 29 minutes of sleep per night reported by the high school students in the sample, with 32% of the sample reporting sufficient sleep (i.e., sleep for 8 or more hours per night). A binomial logistic regression analysis was used to examine the predictive power of a model including race, gender, socioeconomic status, grade level, sleep hygiene factors, and subjective well-being, on sufficient sleep. The model was not significant for the purpose of predicting sufficient sleep in the sample. The predictive power of the model was found to have an overall success rate of 64.3%. Future research is needed to identify a model with a higher success rate for predicting sufficient sleep in high school students, and to address the high rates of insufficient sleep in this population