An Exploratory Thematic Analysis of Factors That Influence Sleep in Music Therapy Undergraduate Students

Sleep has an essential role in the health, wellbeing, and ability to learn of undergraduate college and university students (UCUS). Due to high credit loads, the music curriculum, and music therapy competencies, music therapy students may experience difficulties obtaining adequate sleep. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand factors that enable or inhibit sleep in undergraduate music therapy students. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 junior and senior level music therapy UCUS at public institutions in the United States. We used an inductive approach to thematic analysis to analyze data and incorporated member checking and trustworthiness to clarify and verify the results. We identified three themes (supported by seven subthemes) as factors that impacted the sleep of undergraduate music therapy students: (a) academic schedule and expected time commitment; (b) intrinsic motivation to become better student music therapists; and (c) wellness-based education and personal factors. The results of this study provide insight into the various factors that might adversely affect sleep in undergraduate music therapy students and have consequences on their health, wellbeing, and learning. Implications for students and educators, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are provided.