Impact of Sleep Quality on Cognitive Functioning and Emotional Regulation in Graduate Students

Abstract

Several researches have stated the importance of quality sleep for optimum cognitive functioning and emotional regulation. However, this study fills the gap of research in this area by focusing on graduate students, who experience distinctive academic challenges and intricacies, by extension, the sleep quality. The current research aimed to study how poor quality of sleep can impact ones cognitive and emotional regulation abilities, particularly focusing on the population of graduate students. Three main variables are measured in this study: a) Sleep quality; b) Cognitive functioning and c) Emotional regulation abilities. A quantitative approach was adopted, gathering 250 valid responses from graduate students using a questionnaire. The results of regression analysis suggested a significant positive relationship between poor sleep quality and cognitive failure, also poor sleep quality was found to have a weak but significant negative effect on emotional regulation, indicating that individuals with poor sleep experience more difficulties in cognitive function and controlling their emotions. The obtained results call for the requirement of developing necessary interventions for improving sleep quality catering to the unique needs of graduate students for their mental health and well-being.