High levels of perceived stress and anxiety among university students are a global concern and are known to negatively influence sleep. However, few studies have explored how stress response styles, like psychological resilience and rumination, might alter these relationships. Using validated tools, perceived stress, anxiety, stress response styles, and sleep behaviors of undergraduate and graduate students from seven countries during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic were characterized in order to examine the relationships between these factors using mediation and moderation analyses. Students enrolled in universities in China, Ireland, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States were recruited in May 2020. A total of 2254 students completed this cross-sectional study. Perceived stress and anxiety were negatively associated with sleep quality through the mediation of rumination. Increased psychological resilience weakened the relationships between perceived stress and anxiety on sleep quality. The majority of students reported that COVID-19 negatively influenced their mental health and sleep quality but not sleep duration. Based on these results, university students would likely benefit from sleep education and mental health promotion programs that include trainings to increase psychological resilience and reduce rumination, particularly during times of increased stress.
Health behaviors of higher education students can be negatively influenced by stressful events. The global COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to characterize and compare health behaviors across multiple countries and to examine how these behaviors are shaped by the pandemic experience. Undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in universities in China, Ireland, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands and the United States (USA) were recruited into this cross-sectional study. Eligible students filled out an online survey comprised of validated tools for assessing sleep quality and duration, dietary risk, alcohol misuse and physical activity between late April and the end of May 2020. Health behaviors were fairly consistent across countries, and all countries reported poor sleep quality. However, during the survey period, the COVID-19 pandemic influenced the health behaviors of students in European countries and the USA more negatively than Asian countries, which could be attributed to the differences in pandemic time course and caseloads. Students who experienced a decline in sleep quality during the COVID-19 pandemic had higher dietary risk scores than students who did not experience a change in sleep quality (p = 0.001). Improved sleep quality was associated with less sitting time (p = 0.010). Addressing sleep issues among higher education students is a pressing concern, especially during stressful events. These results support the importance of making education and behavior-based sleep programming available for higher education students in order to benefit students' overall health.
Achieving research reproducibility is a precarious aspect of scientific practice. However, many studies across disciplines fail to be fully reproduced due to inadequate dissemination methods. Traditional publication practices often fail to provide a comprehensive description of the research context and procedures, hindering reproducibility. To address these challenges, this article presents a tutorial on reproducible research using the R programming language. The tutorial aims to equip researchers, including those with limited coding knowledge, with the necessary skills to enhance reproducibility in their work. It covers three essential components: version control using Git, dynamic document creation using rmarkdown, and managing R package dependencies with renv. The tutorial also provides insights into sharing reproducible research and offers specific considerations for the field of sleep and chronobiology research. By following the tutorial, researchers can adopt practices that enhance the transparency, rigor, and replicability of their work, contributing to a culture of reproducible research and advancing scientific knowledge.