The Link Between Sleep, Healthy Food Choices, and Physical Activity
Document Type
Poster
Campus where you would like to present
Ellensburg
Event Website
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source
Start Date
16-5-2021
End Date
22-5-2021
Keywords
Sleep, Health, Decision-Making
Abstract
Many college students regularly get insufficient sleep – as little as six hours on average per night. Many factors contribute to the lack of sleep including demanding academic schedule, work and family obligations, and time-consuming extracurricular activities. Furthermore, most students do not take proper care of themselves, endangering their overall health. Sleep is the time when the body restores itself from the previous day. Insufficient sleep can jeopardize the body’s ability to restore itself, and negatively affect cognitive ability and decision-making. The ability to make good decisions is crucial to health and general functioning in the world. This research aims to study the link between number of hours of sleep, food choices, and physical activity. We hypothesized that, as sleep time increases, so will healthy food choices and time spent on physical activity. In an online survey, recruited college students from social media platforms (N=60) were asked to record their number of hours of sleep the previous night and minutes spent doing physical activity the current day, as well as complete a food questionnaire. Results suggested that as sleep increases, so do healthy food choices, r(58)=.41, p<.001. Although we did not find a significant relationship between sleep and physical activity (p>.05), this may be partially explained by hectic college student schedules (e.g., schoolwork, club activities, jobs, family), that make it difficult to set time aside for physical activity.
Recommended Citation
Cantu, Amanda, "The Link Between Sleep, Healthy Food Choices, and Physical Activity" (2021). Symposium Of University Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 90.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2021/COTS/90
Department/Program
Psychology
Additional Mentoring Department
https://cwu.studentopportunitycenter.com/the-link-between-sleep-healthy-food-choices-and-physical-activity/
The Link Between Sleep, Healthy Food Choices, and Physical Activity
Ellensburg
Many college students regularly get insufficient sleep – as little as six hours on average per night. Many factors contribute to the lack of sleep including demanding academic schedule, work and family obligations, and time-consuming extracurricular activities. Furthermore, most students do not take proper care of themselves, endangering their overall health. Sleep is the time when the body restores itself from the previous day. Insufficient sleep can jeopardize the body’s ability to restore itself, and negatively affect cognitive ability and decision-making. The ability to make good decisions is crucial to health and general functioning in the world. This research aims to study the link between number of hours of sleep, food choices, and physical activity. We hypothesized that, as sleep time increases, so will healthy food choices and time spent on physical activity. In an online survey, recruited college students from social media platforms (N=60) were asked to record their number of hours of sleep the previous night and minutes spent doing physical activity the current day, as well as complete a food questionnaire. Results suggested that as sleep increases, so do healthy food choices, r(58)=.41, p<.001. Although we did not find a significant relationship between sleep and physical activity (p>.05), this may be partially explained by hectic college student schedules (e.g., schoolwork, club activities, jobs, family), that make it difficult to set time aside for physical activity.
https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2021/COTS/90
Faculty Mentor(s)
Tonya Buchanan