Impact of Poor Sleep Quality on Daily Functioning among University Students

Abstract

Sleep is a core biological need that forms the basis of nearly all aspects of daily life, and yet university students are a group at chronic risk of sleep disturbance because of the combination of educational demands, social pressures, use of digital technology, and the loss of patterns of daily life. A low quality of sleep, defined as the inability to fall asleep or sustain a sleep state, the lack of adequate sleep time and the inability to sleep restoratively, poor emotional control, and the lack of social interaction has been reported in the literature to be associated with deteriorated cognitive performance, low academic performance, high levels of fatigue, poor emotional regulation, and diminished social interaction. The current research was a quantitative descriptive and correlational cross-sectional study to examine the effects of poor sleep quality on various aspects of everyday functioning among university students in Pakistan. A total of 200 respondents were chosen through a convenience sample of the university campuses. The structured questionnaire with the use of Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to determine sleep quality and a tested Daily Functioning Scale (DFS) with items about concentration, academic productivity, physical fatigue, emotional regulation, and social functioning were used to collect data. The answers were noted on a 5-point likert scale with PSQI global scoring. The SPSS v.26 and SmartPLS 3.0 were used to perform the analysis and included descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha reliability tests, Pearson correlation tests, independent samples t-tests comparing good and poor sleepers, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the route data between sleep quality and functioning sub-domain to overall daily functioning. The global mean PSQI score was 7.84 (SD = 2.41) which showed that poor sleep quality was widespread; 76.5% of participants were considered poor sleepers (PSQI > 5). SEM established that the quality of sleep was a significant predictor of all five domains of functioning with physical fatigue having the greatest path coefficient (β = -0.61, p = 0.001) and concentration having the second best path coefficient (β = -0.58, p = 0.001). The overall daily functioning variance explained by functioning sub-domains was 48% (R2 = 0.48). These results highlight the importance of evidence-based sleep health interventions in Pakistani university contexts.