The Association Between Sleep and Relationship Quality Among Undergraduate Students

This study sought out to examine the association between sleep and relationship quality in undergraduate student populations. Attending university is a novel experience for emerging adults but is subsequently associated with increased sleep difficulties and increased exposure to various social relationships. Indeed, the literature suggests social relationships can influence sleep in all populations, but few have explored relationship quality in the context of conflict and support in undergraduates. The quality of different social relationships (romantic, family, and friend), the severity of insomnia symptoms, and length of sleep duration were investigated. The current study collected data from a sample of ten undergraduate students (n = 3 men, n = 6 women, and n = 1 declined to report) between the ages of 18 and 23 years (Mage = 19.89; SD = 1.90) who were recruited from the undergraduate SONA psychology pool at the University of Mississippi. Results of the study suggested a positive association between friendship conflict and insomnia symptoms, consistent with the third subsection of the third hypothesis. Other types of relationship conflict and support were not found to be significantly correlated with insomnia symptoms or sleep duration, contrary to the other hypotheses. This study establishes initial evidence for future research to analyze the significance of friendship conflict’s effects on sleep in the lives of undergraduate students