Effects of Academic Stress on Sleep Disturbance in Adolescents: Focusing on the Mediating Effects of Emotional Dysregulation

Background: Sleep is essential for healthy development during adolescence, and sleep deprivation can lead to poor memory, emotional instability, depression, and more (Kelly et al., 2013). Academic stress and other factors make it difficult for adolescents to get enough sleep. Academic stress impairs sleep quality, causing sleep latency, wakefulness, and nightmares, which can impact academic performance and emotional instability (Buckley & Schatzberg, 2005). Academic stress also impairs adolescents' ability to regulate their emotions, and poor emotional regulation further impairs sleep quality (Gratz & Roemer, 2004). Adolescent brain development is characterized by an incomplete maturation of the frontal lobe, which can lead to difficulties with impulse control and emotional judgment, and academic stress can impair emotional regulation, leading to sleep disturbances (Dahl & Lewin, 2002). Improving emotional regulation can improve sleep quality, and emotion acceptance and reinterpretation strategies are more effective than emotion suppression (Bauducco et al., 2016). Thus, the relationship between academic stress and sleep disturbance is influenced by emotional regulation, and improving it may be an important psychological intervention.

Methods: This study analyzed the effects of academic stress on sleep disorders and examined the mediating effects of emotional dysregulation using data collected from adolescents by the Family and Youth Welfare Research Team at Yonsei University. The study included 957 adolescents enrolled in middle and high schools in Seoul, the Seoul metropolitan area, and rural areas. Sleep disturbance was measured using the ISI-K, academic stress was measured using the AESI, and emotional dysregulation was measured using the DERS-18. The analysis was conducted using SPSS 29.0 for frequency analysis, correlation analysis, and mediation effect analysis using PROCESS Macro. The results of the study examined the effects of academic stress on sleep disturbance and the mediating effect of emotional dysregulation.

Results: Academic stress in adolescents had a significant positive relationship with sleep disturbance (b = 0.14, p < .001), and emotional dysregulation mediated the relationship between academic stress and sleep disturbance (b = 0.35, p < .001). Higher academic stress was associated with increased emotional dysregulation, which in turn was associated with sleep disturbance.

Conclusion: This study examined the effects of academic stress on sleep disturbance in adolescents and the mediating effect of emotional dysregulation. The results showed that more than half of adolescents suffer from sleep disorders, which are mainly due to socio-cultural factors such as early school hours and an entrance examination-oriented education system. Academic stress contributes to sleep disorders by reducing sleep quality, and emotional dysregulation mediates the relationship between academic stress and sleep disorders. This study suggests that reducing academic stress and improving emotional regulation may play an important role in improving sleep disorders in adolescents. Therefore, multidimensional interventions and policy support are needed to improve adolescents' sleep health, and it is important to regularly conduct sleep-related surveys and establish programs to reduce academic stress.