Sex and racial/ethnic differences in sleep quality and its relationship with body weight status among US college students.

Objective

To examine sex and racial/ethnic differences in sleep quality and the association between sleep quality and body weight status among US college students.

Participants

A nationally representative sample (N = 324,767) of college students from 2011 to 2015.

Methods

A secondary data analysis of cross-sectional data.

Results

Women showed poorer sleep quality (nights per week getting enough sleep to feel rested) than men (4.00 versus 4.34 days; p < .001). In both men and women, compared with non-Hispanic whites, racial/ethnic minorities showed lower sleep quality (p < .001). Compared with normal weight participants, overweight participants had poorer sleep quality (p = .007) among men, and both overweight (p = .004) and obese participants (p < .001) had lower sleep quality among women.

Conclusions

Understanding sex and racial/ethnic sleep differences and the association between sleep and body weight status is important for colleges to promote college students' healthy sleep.