The Role of Conscientiousness Personality Trait and Gender in Predicting Sleep Quality among Elite-Level University Student Swimmers Vs Non-Athletes University Students

Abstract

Personality traits and sleep quality play a major role in the mental well-being and performance of university students. While earlier research has explored the overall connection between personality and sleep, there hasn't been enough focus on how conscientiousness and gender might influence sleep quality, especially considering differences related to athletic backgrounds. This leaves an important gap in our understanding. To fill this gap, this study aimed to explore how both conscientiousness and gender could predict sleep quality among university students, including both elite swimmers and students who are not athletes. The study involved 180 students, with 90 elite-level university student swimmers (Mean age 20.62 years, SD = 2.246) and 90 non-athlete students (Mean age 19.89 years, SD = 1.814). We used a cross-sectional method with self-report questionnaires to gather demographic information, the BFI-10 to measure personality traits and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality. The analysis showed that conscientiousness was a significant predictor of sleep quality in both groups. Interestingly, in elite-level university student swimmers, higher conscientiousness was linked to better sleep and the same pattern was observed among non-athletes. Gender was only a major predictor in the early stages of analysis for elite-level university student swimmers but did not remain important once other factors were considered, nor was it major for non-athletes. Overall, these results suggest that conscientiousness is consistently associated with better sleep quality, regardless of athletic status, while gender appears to have only a limited role. This indicates that efforts to improve sleep should consider personality traits, along with gender differences and that strategies might need to be customized differently for athletes and non-athletes.