Exploration of a virtual mindfulness meditation program for higher education students: A mixed methods study

Research Objectives

This study aims to explore the benefits of virtual mindfulness meditation programming to improve sleep quality and reduce perceived stress.

Design

Exploratory, mixed methods design. Bivariate analyses (sleep quality and perceived stress) were conducted and qualitative data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach. Descriptive analyses summarized participants' characteristics. Inferential statistics were conducted to examine significant changes.

Setting

Local private university on the East Coast.

Participants

16 adults who were full or part-time students enrolled at a private university. Mean age of participants 22 years, mostly female gender and white race.

Interventions

Participants completed 8 sessions over 12 weeks. The program consisted of eight 30-minute virtual sessions via Zoom, including a 5-minute introduction, a 10-minute discussion, and a 15-minute verbally guided meditation facilitated by research team members. The same guided meditation was used in each session.

Main Outcome Measures

Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) as pre-test and post-test measurements. A semi-structured interview was conducted post-programming.

Results

Data analysis revealed significant, favorable, within-subject changes in both the PSQI (p= 0.0012) and the PSS outcomes (p= 0.0019). According to the qualitative data collected, participants reported decreased stress during busy days and stress related to academics. Participants also reported fewer awakenings during the night, better sleep quality, and being able to fall asleep faster at night.

Conclusions

The results are noteworthy for improvement in sleep quality and stress levels; however, the results cannot be generalized due to a lack of a control group, a small sample size, and convenience sampling. Nevertheless, the results of the study demonstrate the potential to use virtual mindfulness meditation to improve sleep and reduce stress in higher education students. The data from this study and the mindfulness meditation program could be applied in academic settings to target programming addressing sleep quality and stress management among students.

Author(s) Disclosures

The authors declare no conflict of interest.