Mediating effect of sleep hygiene between morningness–eveningness preferences and psychological distress among a sample of Lebanese adults

Our study explored the mediating effect of sleep hygiene between morningness-eveningness preferences and psychological distress among a sample of Lebanese adults. A total of 948 Lebanese participants were enrolled in this cross-sectional study (mean age 26.93 ± 10.23 years). A self-administered survey was dispersed using the snowball sampling technique. The survey consisted of socio-demographic characteristics along with the following Arabic validated instruments: The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ), the Patient-Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4), and the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v.27 with mediation analysis via PROCESS MACRO v.42 Model 4. Sleep hygiene fully mediated the relationship between morningness-eveningness preferences and psychological distress. Greater morningness preferences were significantly associated with better sleep hygiene (i.e. lower sleep hygiene scores). In turn, poor sleep hygiene (i.e. higher sleep hygiene scores) was significantly associated with higher psychological distress. The direct association between morningness and psychological distress was not statistically significant. Our study offered insight on important connections between sleep hygiene, morningness-eveningness preferences, and psychological distress within the Lebanese context. These results highlight the necessity of promoting healthy sleep behaviors and chronobiological awareness to improve mental health in this population.