Sleep Deprivation, Mental Health, and Anxiety of Chittagong University Students

Abstract

Proper quality and quantity of sleep is an inevitable part for better cognitive and overall performance of students. Previous research shows that sleep deprivation affects both physical and mental state of the students. In this context, no literature is available in the perspective of Bangladesh. The main focus of this research was to obtain a deeper insight of the negative effects of sleep deprivation on mental health and anxiety of Chittagong University students. Purposively selected and readily available 200 respondents constituted the sample of the study. An adapted Bengali version of General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) (Sorcar and Rahman, 1989) and the Anxiety Scale developed by Deeba and Begum (2004) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation. It was found that sleep deprivation has significant adverse effect on both mental health (f=9.51, df=198, p<0.01) and anxiety (f=l0.00, df=198, p<0.01). Sleep deprived students showed significantly lower mental health and significantly greater anxiety than sleep non-deprived students. Sleep duration was found positively correlated with mental health. Anxiety was found negatively correlated with sleep duration and mental health. Effective interventions against sleep deprivation are necessary to improve students' anxiety and mental health status. The Chittagong Univ. J. B. Sci. 8(1&2). 135-146, 2013