Introduction. Sleep is central to students' daily functioning and can be essential to mood, attention, learning, and self-regulation. While psychological models of sleep emphasize arousal regulation and circadian timing, the everyday visual context in which days unfold, both objective light exposure and the momentary, experienced qualities of the visual environment, may shape how well students sleep at night. Evidence that integrates wearable light sensing with in-situ visual appraisals and links both to nightly sleep in naturalistic settings remains limited.


Purpose. Examine how day-to-day variation in objective light and experienced visual qualities aligns with nighttime sleep. Further, outline which aspects of sleep (self-reported sleep timing, duration, quality) show the clearest associations with objective and perceived visual qualities.


Method. In a seven-day field protocol, 43 students wore light sensors. Using Ecological Momentary Assessment, participants completed multiple brief ratings of the visual environment each day, plus a morning and a night sleep diary.


Results. Results will present distributions of sleep and visual context, and correlations between daytime light exposure and visual appraisals with nighttime sleep and sleep behavior. Expected patterns were that higher daytime light and more favorable visual appraisals coincide with longer and/or better-quality sleep, whereas lower light and less favorable appraisals coincide with shorter and/or poorer sleep.


Conclusions. Pairing wearable sensing with in-the-moment appraisals and twice-daily sleep reports yields actionable, real-world estimates of visual conditions linked to sleep in student life. These estimates can guide practical, context-aware adjustments, such as adjusting daytime light exposure or selecting visually supportive study spaces, to support healthier sleep in applied settings and thereby enable the potential to improve overall functioning, health and well-being in students.