College students commonly experience poor sleep, which impairs functioning and increases risks for depression and anxiety. While mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) improves mood, its effects on sleep remain underexplored. Objective: To investigate MBCT’s efficacy in improving sleep and examine academic stress and interpersonal relationships as moderators. Methods: 24 students were divided into an MBCT group (n = 12) and a control group (n = 12). Both received sleep hygiene education, with the MBCT group additionally receiving an 8-week intervention. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) difference (pre-post) served as the outcome measure. Results: MBCT showed strong preliminary efficacy in this pilot sample (P = 0.000, Cohen’s d≈2.35). However, neither academic stress nor interpersonal relationships reached statistical significance as moderators (P = 0.443 and P = 0.519, respectively). Interaction plots and simple slope analyses suggested that higher academic stress may weaken MBCT’s advantage, while average interpersonal relationships may enhance it. Statistical power for moderation analysis was low (43.5%). Conclusion: MBCT effectively improves sleep quality in college students, with academic stress and interpersonal relationships showing potential, though not statistically significant, moderating effects. Larger studies are needed to further explore these relationships.
