Linying Ji

Project Leader Linying Ji, Ph.D.
MSU Department of Psychology
linying.ji@montana.edu 

Sleep is a major driver of multiple health outcomes, including cardiovascular disease, cognitive functioning, immune functioning, and mental well-being. Sleep health has been defined as “a multidimensional pattern of sleep-wakefulness, adapted to individual, social, and environmental demands, that promotes physical and mental well-being.” Suboptimal sleep is prevalent and increasing among college students. However, prior research on college students’ sleep has overlooked demographic backgrounds. No prior research has investigated sleep health of college students from rural areas transitioning to non-rural colleges, or how their sleep changes across their college years. In addition, it is also not clear what unique risk and protective factors contribute to sleep health among college students from rural areas.

Given the large proportion of students from rural areas at Montana State University (MSU), and the large portion of rural high schoolers suffering from disrupted sleep, it is critical to study sleep health challenges faced by college students from rural areas attending non-rural colleges. This project aims to 1) understand multidimensional sleep health and how it changes across the first two years of college, and identify key risk and protective factors among college students from rural areas at MSU; 2) investigate between- and within-participants’ associations of sleep health and daytime mood across a 4-week study period with ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data; and 3) investigate associations of influential factors identified in the Year 1 project (e.g., screen time and social connection) and sleep. We plan to follow up with the 20 participants we recruited in the Year 1 project, recruit 25 more freshmen from rural areas, and recruit 25 freshmen from non-rural areas (comparison group).

The project adopts a mixed-methods design to address the knowledge gap. Knowledge gained from this project will 1) inform sleep health of the college students from rural areas; 2) identify key risk and resilience factors for sleep health; 3) investigate associations of sleep health and daytime mood; and 4) examine influential factors unique to rural students and their sleep. The long-term goal of this project is to provide valuable and necessary pilot data for a larger R01 submission focusing on investigating how sleep patterns evolve over years and relate to academic performance and retention for college students from rural areas using longitudinal data. Eventually, the study team plans to develop a targeted sleep intervention to improve sleep health.