Sleep Quality, Smartphone Dependency, and Academic Performance among University Students

Abstract

To examine how sleep quality, smartphone dependency, and academic performance connect among university students in Multan, Pakistan, this study used a cross-sectional quantitative design. The sample comprised 350 undergraduate and postgraduate students from public and private universities, gathered via proportionate convenience sampling so that various fields of study and academic levels were represented. The study evaluated sleep quality with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, assessed smartphone dependency using a standardized Smartphone Addiction Scale, and captured academic performance via each student's self-reported GPA from their most recent semester. To analyze these variables and test whether smartphone dependency and sleep quality significantly predicted academic performance once demographic traits were held constant, the study used descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and hierarchical multiple regression models. Most students reported poor sleep and moderate-to-high dependence on their phones, with both measures showing significant correlations with academic performance in the expected directions. Even after demographic characteristics were accounted for, hierarchical regression showed that smartphone dependency and sleep quality continued to be significant individual predictors of academic performance, accounting together for a substantial share of variance in grade point average. These results point to excessive phone use and poor sleep as modifiable risks for academic troubles among Pakistani university students, carrying direct implications for campus counseling and institutional health policy.