Stress, Sleep and Performance in International and Domestic University Students

Abstract

Stress and poor sleep quality are serious and common problems among university students that could have detrimental effects on their academic performance. International students may experience greater difficulty than domestic students because they also need to deal with the challenges associated with moving to a new culture. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between stress (perceived and acculturative), sleep quality and academic performance by comparing them between international and domestic students. Perceived stress negatively correlated with sleep quality. However, no relationship was found between acculturative stress and sleep quality, between sleep quality and academic performance, and between stress (perceived and acculturative) and academic performance. Differences on perceived stress and sleep quality between international and domestic students were found. Perceived stress was found to be an important factor that requires the university to focus on effective stress management programs that could be useful for achieving better sleep quality.