Digital Sleep Diary Self-Monitoring and Perceived Sleep Quality in Civil Engineering Students: A Pilot Pretest–Posttest Controlled Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65166/cdq7k160Keywords:
sleep self-monitoring, digital sleep diary, perceived sleep quality, PSQI, engineering students, academic stress, caffeine useAbstract
Sleep curtailment and poor subjective sleep quality are frequently observed among university students, particularly in high-demand programs. This study evaluated whether short-term self-monitoring via a digital sleep diary is associated with changes in perceived sleep quality among civil engineering students. A pilot pretest–posttest controlled design was conducted among 20 second-year Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering students. Participants were allocated to an experimental group completing a structured digital sleep diary each morning for seven days or to a control group that continued usual routines without monitoring. Perceived sleep quality was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Diary data yielded 70 daily observations describing sleep duration and related behavioral/context indicators. At baseline, all participants were classified as poor sleepers (PSQI > 5) and reported short sleep duration (mean hours in bed = 5.28). The experimental group showed a larger numerical reduction in PSQI (9.45 to 8.10; change −1.35) than the control group (9.50 to 8.90; change −0.60), but the group × time interaction was not statistically significant (p = .115). Diary summaries indicated mean sleep duration of 5.60 hours, caffeine use in 45% of entries, and no within-week variation in the academic stressor indicator. A 7-day digital sleep diary produced a directional improvement in perceived sleep quality but did not yield statistically significant superiority over control in this pilot sample. Findings support diary-based self-monitoring as a feasible awareness tool while highlighting workload- and stimulant-related constraints that may limit short-term behavioral change in high-demand curricula.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Felisse Marianne Z. San Juan, PhD, Christine Joy Elardo, Ramon George O. Atento, PhD, Ma. Luisa P. Valderama (Author)
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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