Could Better Sleep Lead to Better Mental Health?

For many college students, poor sleep feels like a normal part of campus life. Between coursework, jobs, extracurricular activities, and the constant demands of young adulthood, getting a full night’s sleep often falls to the bottom of the priority list. But what if disrupted sleep is more than just a consequence of being busy? What if it is one of the easiest signs that a student’s mental health needs attention?

That question is at the center of Dr. Emily Bartholomay’s research.

As an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Dr. Bartholomay studies how sleep, cognitive function, anxiety, and depression interact in college students. Rather than focusing only on treating mental health disorders after they develop, her work seeks to understand how sleep can be used to identify students who may benefit from support much earlier.

“I became more interested in where these problems were coming from,” Dr. Bartholomay said. “Rather than waiting for anxiety and depression to become really chronic, severe problems, can we step in earlier and try to reduce the risk of those becoming more serious issues?”

Her interest in sleep research grew from her clinical experience. While working with clients experiencing anxiety and mood disorders, she noticed an issue that appeared almost every time.

“If there was one thing that was constant, it was that sleep was just robbed.”

Despite how common sleep difficulties were, she found that they rarely brought students into a counseling office on their own.

“It seemed like there was a kind of mismatch there,” she explained. “People see sleep as more of a medical issue rather than a mental health issue.”

That observation inspired a new direction for her research, one that asks whether improving sleep could become an important part of preventing anxiety and depression before symptoms become more severe.

To answer those questions, Dr. Bartholomay combines several research approaches. Participants wear research-grade actigraphy watches that objectively measure sleep and complete a validated questionnaire on fatigue, insomnia symptoms, anxiety, depression, and daily functioning. Her studies also include cognitive tasks that measure attention and processing speed alongside students’ own perceptions of how well they are concentrating.

“I really like to focus on having self-report and objective measures because they’re showing us different things,” she said.

By combining multiple tools, her research captures both what students experience and what objective measurements reveal- two perspectives that do not always tell the same story. One of her most interesting findings has challenged a common assumption about healthy sleep. While many studies emphasize the importance of getting enough sleep, her work suggests that for college students, another factor may matter even more.

“What’s more relevant when it comes to sleep and mental health is how long it takes them to fall asleep at night.”

Findings like these continue to shape the direction of her work.

“I think it’s a good sign of good research,” she said, “If you are shifting what you’re doing based on what you’re finding.”

Beyond advancing scientific knowledge, Dr. Bartholomay hopes her research can improve how colleges support student well-being. She believes sleep should become a routine part of conversations about mental health, with greater emphasis on early screening, education, and practical coping strategies before students reach a crisis point.

She also hopes to make research itself more accessible. Many psychological assessment tools are costly, making them difficult for smaller institutions and researchers with limited funding to use. Part of her work explored whether low-cost or freely available alternatives can provide information while expanding opportunities for future research.

“It’s all about making more accessible research,” she said. “We’re not yet there, but it’s a moving target for us to keep working on.”

Looking ahead, Dr. Bartholomay plans to expand her research beyond day-to-day changes in mood by examining how sleep patterns over several weeks influence the development of anxiety and depression symptoms. Understanding when disrupted sleep begins contributing to long-term mental health challenges could help universities identify students earlier and connect them with appropriate resources.

For Dr. Bartholomay, the work ultimately comes back to something everyone experiences.

“I study things that affect all of us,” she said. “Anxiety is a human emotion that we all experience from time to time. Sleep is soothing; we’re all supposed to be doing it every day.”

By uncovering the connections between sleep and mental health, her research is helping build a future where better sleep is recognized not simply as a healthy behavior, but as an essential part of promoting well-being and preventing mental health challenges among college students.