Sleep, the Never-ending Quest of College Students: Effects of a Semester Long Sleep Course on Sleep Patterns and Daytime Functioning

Aim 1) To evaluate whether a semester long course focused entirely on sleep produces improvements in college students' sleep patterns across the semester based on one-week sleep diaries.

H1: Compared to students enrolled in other courses who are not expected to show significant changes in sleep patterns, students enrolled in the sleep course will demonstrate increases in total sleep time, decreases in sleep onset latency, and decreases in nighttime awakenings. In line with Mayer's theoretical model, these sleep-based changes will evidence non-linear (i.e., quadractic) patterns across four time points during the semester.

Aim 2) To evaluate changes in sleep hygiene behaviors across the semester among students enrolled in a sleep course compared to students enrolled in other courses.

H2: Compared to students enrolled in other courses who are not expected to show significant changes in sleep hygiene behaviors, students enrolled in the sleep course will report a decreased frequency of naps, use of electronics within one hour of bed, and an increase in sleep regularity (e.g., reduction in the discrepancy between weekend and weekday wake times) across the four time points during the semester.

Aim 3) To evaluate how sleep patterns relate to daytime mood and energy levels across the semester among students enrolled in a sleep course and other courses.