The Relationship between Perceived Stress, Sleep Quality and the Everyday Memory of the Senior Middle School, High School and College Students in Turkey

This study examines the relationship between perceived stress, sleep quality and memory of the senior middle school, high school and college students in Turkey. It is important to examine the interaction between these three variables because each variable has a significant role in human life. To our knowledge, there is no study examining the effects of these three variables’ relationship on students. In this study, we asked participants their socio demographic information. To test our variables, we used the Sleep Quality Scale (Shahid et al., 2011), The Everyday Memory Questionnaire (Royle & Lincoln, 2008), and the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen et al., 1994). Data was collected from the 8th grade, 12th grade, and senior college students via an online platform. We mainly aimed to observe interrelations between perceived stress, sleep quality, and memory interruptions. The positive correlation between perceived stress and memory problems demonstrates that people with high levels of perceived stress also have high levels of memory problems. Sleep problems and memory problems are positively correlated, which means that students with sleep problems also have memory problems. We also found that perceived stress and sleep problems are positively correlated, which means that students who have high levels of perceived stress also have difficulties in sleep. However, our results showed no difference between the student groups’ stress level, sleep quality, and memory problems. This research provides a new sample to the literature about the studies that integrate the relationship between perceived stress, sleep quality, and memory.