Sleep quality mediates the relationship between traumatic events, psychological distress, and suicidality in college undergraduates.

To determine whether sleep quality mediates the relationship between traumatic life events and psychological wellbeing in college students. 40,646 undergraduate responses from the Spring 2017 National College Health Assessment II were evaluated for relationships between two predictor variables: and and two outcome variables: (a composite of anxiety, exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, depression, sadness, loneliness, hopelessness, and anger) and (composite of self-harm behaviors, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts). Linear mediation regression analysis via structural equation modeling was used to test these relationships. Each additional students reported experiencing was associated with a 27.6% - 58.9% increase in the odds of reporting indicators of psychological distress or suicidality. significantly mediated this negative relationship (proportional effects between 10.6 and 12.5%). Healthy sleep mediates the impact of traumatic life events on psychological distress and suicidality.