Abstract
AIMS: To explore relationships between mental health problems, mental health shame, self-compassion and average length of sleep in UK nursing students. The increasing mental health problems in nursing students may be related to a strong sense of shame they experience for having a mental health problem. Self-compassion has been identified as a protective factor for mental health and shame in other student populations. Further, studies highlight the importance of sleep relating to mental health. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design. METHODS: A convenient sampling of 182 nursing students at a university in the East Midlands completed a paper-based questionnaire regarding these four constructs, from February to April 2019. Correlation, regression and mediation analyses were conducted. RESULTS: Mental health problems were positively related to shame and negatively related to self-compassion and sleep. Mental health shame positively predicted and self-compassion negatively predicted mental health problems: sleep was not a significant predictor of mental health problems. Lastly, self-compassion completely mediated the impacts of sleep on mental health problems (negative relationship between mental health problems and sleep was fully explained by self-compassion). CONCLUSION: The importance of self-compassion was highlighted as it can reduce mental health problems and shame. Self-compassion can protect nursing students from mental distress when they are sleep deprived. IMPACT: Nurses and nursing students are required to work irregular hours (e.g. COVID-19) and mental distress can cause serious consequences in clinical practice. Our findings suggest that nurturing self-compassion can protect their mental health and the negative impacts of sleep deprivation on mental health.