Impact of Race and Sensitive Personalities on Insomnia in Collegiate Athletes
Board Location: #108
Discipline: Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences
Subcategory: Social Sciences/Psychology/Economics
Session: 3
Asia Rogers - Bennett College
Co-Author(s): Nicole Hoffman, PhD, ATC, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
Insomnia is defined as difficulties initiating or maintaining sleep and early awakening before achieving optimum sleep. A highly sensitive person issomeone who has a low tolerance for stimuli, a characteristic exemplified as sensory processing sensitivity.Levels of sensitivity are not fully understood in collegiate athletes, especially in individuals based on race.College athletes, particularly those from racial minority backgrounds, may suffer from these traits due to numerous environmental stimuli/stressors they encounter within sport. Consequently, demanding schedules can potentially negatively impact their sleep, especially if they are highly sensitive. The purpose of this study was to determine whether race and the degree of hypersensitivity predict whether collegiate athletes will have an insomnia disorder. We performed a cross-sectional study of Division I collegiate athletes (age:19.8+1.7 yrs.; 2 groups: racial minority and white) from Michigan State University. Participants (n=377) were asked to complete a 5-10-minute survey, administered via Qualtrics, which included demographics and two self-reported questionnaires: Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and Pittsburgh Sleep Symptom Questionnaire – Insomnia (PSSQ I). The HSP examines a person’s sensitivity to environmental stimuli and their awareness of the subtleties of the world around them. The PSSQ I examined participants’ sleep symptoms during the past month and looked for insomnia characteristics. Our findings indicated that collegiate athletes who were racial minorities with higher degrees of sensitivity had greater odds of experiencing an insomnia disorder compared to white collegiate athletes. Future research should explore causes of the racial disparity in collegiate athletes with higher levels of sensitivity and their relationship with insomnia.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): SROP program, no specific funder with my research.
Faculty Advisor: Nicole Hoffman, PhD, ATC, hoffm661@msu.edu
Role: I collaborated with my mentor to find a topic that I felt suited and interested me. I helped my mentor with the data analyses and interpretation. I also created the paper, poster, and presentations, with corrections made by my mentor, discussing my research to other interns and ultimately at the final conference of the program that I was in (SROP).