Lee University junior Karina Dilse recently won first place for her poster presentation at the 134th annual meeting of the Tennessee Academy of Science. Her research, “The Correlation Between Physical Exercise, Sleep, and Mindfulness on Mental Health in College Students,” was presented in the Health and Medical Sciences section of the meeting, hosted by Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. 

Dilse’s research evaluated different health behaviors and how they related to the prevalence of mental health issues in college students, specifically focusing on depression. The health behaviors she chose to research were physical exercise, sleep, and mindfulness, which she defined as “being present in the moment.”  

According to Dilse, she understood that all these behaviors should improve mental health, but wanted to know to what extent and which behavior was the most impactful. To research this, she used four questionnaires on 210 college students living in the U.S. to assess how physical exercise, sleep, and mindfulness are connected to symptoms of depression.  

“Initially, I hypothesized that physical exercise would have the highest correlation to depression because of the numerous peer-reviewed articles between the two,” said Dilse. “However, after analyzing the data, I discovered that mindfulness had the highest correlation with depression. Physical exercise and sleep were also important, but mindfulness seemed to have the greatest relation to fewer symptoms of depression.”  

Through her research, Dilse found that mindfulness also played a role in the two other behaviors she was researching. Finding the motivation to exercise and sleeping peacefully, both behaviors that can help reduce depression symptoms, require a level of mindfulness before they can become productive.  

Dilse, a biology major with a pre-physical therapy emphasis from Saipan, is a member of Lee’s McNair Scholars Program, which is designed to provide first-generation and underrepresented minority students with academic, financial, cultural, and social support while preparing for graduate school. 

“I am incredibly thankful for the opportunity of representing Lee and McNair at the Tennessee Academy of Science and give all the glory to God,” said Dilse. “While at the meeting, I had the opportunity to connect with two physical therapy LMU faculty professors and gain ideas for conducting research from their presentation. As I talked with them, I regained the significance of my research as it applies in a therapy setting. I find comfort knowing that my research may be used to help improve someone’s mental health through the practice of health behaviors.” 

Dilse is planning to work this summer on creating an intervention study to try to support her findings from this research.  

“I am so proud of Karina and the work she has done,” said Dr. Pamela Hobbs, assistant professor of health science. “She put in time and effort developing her research, and I was glad she had an opportunity to present her findings at the Tennessee Academy of Science Meeting. She did a great job with her presentation, and she represented Lee University and the Department of Natural Sciences well.” 

Dilse’s research paper is published in Lee University’s 2024 McNair Academic Journal. For more information about the McNair Scholars Program or to view Dilse’s research paper, visit leeuniversity.edu/mcnair/. 

For more information about the Tennessee Academy of Science, visit tennacadofsci.org/.