Getting a good night’s sleep can do as much for your mental health as having a supportive peer network or even a compelling reason to live, according to new research from the University of St. Thomas.
A peer-reviewed article published Monday in the Journal of American College Health analyzed American College Health Association survey responses from more than 40,000 college students.
Focusing on respondents deemed most at risk of suicide, the study authors weighed traumatic life events over the past year, such as a family divorce or major financial setback, against the respondents’ sleep quality.
Each additional traumatic life event increased the likelihood of psychological distress by 37 to 60 percent and the odds of suicidal thoughts by 28 to 35 percent.
Students who slept well, however, reported 11-12 percent less anxiety, which is comparable to the positive impact of having a strong social support group or a compelling reason to live.
Roxanne Prichard, a professor of psychology at the University of St. Thomas, said the coronavirus pandemic has made people more anxious.
“A lot of us are suffering the trauma of losing a loved one. There’s anxieties with childcare,” she said. “But if we’re able to prioritize sleep, the study shows we’re going to have a much better time managing those anxieties.”
Prichard wrote the study along with Sergey Berg, an assistant professor of computer and information science at St. Thomas.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college-age Americans.
“Not surprisingly, for the students that had a bunch of traumatic events, they were more likely to report feeling suicidal and also report feeling extreme psychological distress,” Prichard said.
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“But the good news is, (despite) an equal amount of trauma in their lives, the students who were sleeping well had a reduced amount of suicidology,” she said. “Good sleep is like an umbrella for the storm in life. They are much less likely to do self-harm and have suicidal thoughts.”
The findings echo Prichard’s experience interviewing students as a sleep consultant. They also build on other studies that have linked insomnia to depression and found that people who get good sleep are less likely to get colds because their immune systems are stronger.
“Here we have something that, for the most part, students can control,” Prichard said. “If we can sleep well, we are at much less risk for having suicidal thoughts and for having psychological distress.”
