Bloomfield LSP, Fudolig MI, Kim J, et al. Predicting stress in first-year college students using sleep data from wearable devices. PLOS Digit Health. 2024;3(4):e0000473. doi:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000473
This longitudinal study explored whether sleep data gathered by the Oura ring could predict subjective measures of stress in first-semester college students. During the beginning of the fall semester, 603 first-year college students (27.4% male) were recruited and enrolled in the study. Participants completed demographic surveys and a baseline PSS-10, which measures an individual’s perception of life stress. Participants received an Oura ring to record nightly sleep data and resubmitted responses to the PSS-10 weekly. Nightly sleep data was averaged into weekly data points to compare to that week’s PSS-10 only if participants had worn their Oura ring for at least three nights that week (87% compliance). The data from this study yielded several interesting findings. Overall, the biometric data from the Oura ring, especially the average nightly total sleep time, predicted perceived stress. Decreased sleep time and changes in sleep time from the previous week were linked to increased perceived stress. The findings also suggested that increased resting heart rate and respiratory rate and decreased heart rate variability could also predict increased perceived stress. On average college students were stressed in their first semester. In this sample, 64% reported moderate-to-high perceived stress. Average nightly total sleep time was below the recommended amount; the average minimum was 5.75 hours (SD = 1.14), and 32% of individuals consistently slept less than 7 hours a night. This study supports the growing idea that sleep and cardiorespiratory measures can identify changes in health. It also displays the acceptability (high compliance/use) of one available tool to gather relevant measures in college-aged individuals.