Poor Sleep Quality, Overthinking and Mental Well-Being in Young Adults

Abstract

The current study aimed to evaluate the association between poor sleep quality, overthinking, and mental well-being. It was hypothesized that there would be an association between poor sleep quality, overthinking, and mental well-being in young adults. Moreover, overthinking would mediate the association between poor sleep quality and mental well-being in young adults. A sample of 488 young adults, including men (n = 244) and women (n = 244) ranging in age from 19 to 25 years (M = 20.38, and SD = 1.76) was taken from different private and government sector universities. Convenience sampling strategy was used to approach participants and data collection. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (Buysse et al., 1989), Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (Tennant et al., 2007), and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (Warwick & Edinburgh, 2008) were employed to assess the levels of sleep quality, overthinking, and mental well-being. Pearson product-moment correlation and mediation analysis through AMOS were used to test hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that poor sleep quality is correlated with overthinking and mental well-being in young adults. Overthinking was found to have a positive association with poor sleep quality and a negative association with mental well-being. Furthermore, overthinking was mediating the relation between poor sleep quality and mental well-being. The present study has implications in social, counseling, and educational psychology. Limitations, implications, and future directions of the current study were also discussed.