RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY, SLEEP DISORDER AND SUICIDE IDEATION AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Abstract

In contemporary period, suicide, as well as sleep disorder has been on the increase among students. Cases of sleep deprivation leading to suicide has also been reported in Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka in recent times. This is why the researcher has become interested in the concept of sleep disorder, narcissism and suicide. In the present study a total number of 62 final year students of the faculty of law and the department of psychology were selected using the simple sampling technique to participate in this study. Their ages ranged between 20 and 31, with the mean age of 23.04 and standard deviation of 3.02. The Dark Triad of Personality (D3-Short) by Paulhus; (2013), Suicide ideation scale (SIS) by David Rudd (1989) and Sleep Disorder Questionnaire (SDQ) by Helen Driver (1994) were used for data collection. A correlational design was used for this study and person moment coefficient statistics was used to test the role of Narcissism (Dark Triad of personality) trait and suicide on sleep disorder. Two hypotheses were stated, namely; a) There will be a significant relationship between Narcissism trait and sleep disorder among undergraduate students. b) There will be a significant relationship between suicide ideation and sleep disorder among undergraduate students. The result revealed that Narcissism shows a significant relationship with sleep disorder among undergraduate students and Suicide ideation showed a significant relationship with sleep difficulty among undergraduate students thereby confirming the two hypotheses. It was therefore recommended that mental health experts and psychologist should gain a better understanding of the barriers to treatment of persons with sleep disorder so that a more comprehensive service can be rendered to individuals in need of mental health service. The Energy conservative Theory of sleep seems to capture the most significant sectors of sleep disorder, their characteristics and outcomes. Also, the researcher recommend that psychologist become aware of other causes of sleep disorder and also gain insight in perspectives relating to mental health treatment.