New research from Binghamton University suggests everyday habits like eating breakfast, sleeping enough and exercising can help students handle stress by building psychological flexibility. The study points to simple lifestyle changes that may make it easier to bounce back when life gets hard.
If you feel overwhelmed when life throws you a curveball, your first step toward coping better might start with your plate, your pillow and your sneakers.
New research from Binghamton University, published in the Journal of American College Health, suggests that everyday habits such as eating breakfast, getting enough sleep, exercising and even taking fish oil are linked to a mental skill called psychological flexibility. That skill, in turn, appears to help college students stay more resilient when stress hits.
Psychological flexibility is the ability to adapt your thoughts, emotions and behavior when circumstances change, instead of getting mentally stuck. People high in this trait can notice what they are feeling, put it in context and choose a response that fits the situation rather than reacting on autopilot.
Lead author Lina Begdache, an associate professor of health and wellness studies at Binghamton’s Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, studies how food and lifestyle affect mood. She noted that many of us already know someone who seems to embody this flexible mindset.
“You might know someone who stays cool under pressure,” Begdache said in a news release. “The kind of person who misses a flight and, instead of panicking, calmly adapts to the situation. This person may still feel stressed, but they’re better able to manage it through psychological flexibility.”
To explore how daily habits relate to this mental skill, Begdache and her colleagues, former Binghamton assistant professor of physical therapy Jason Cherry and former student Alexander J. Talkachov, conducted an anonymous survey of about 400 college students. The survey asked about diet, sleep, exercise and other lifestyle factors, and included measures of both psychological flexibility and resilience.
Resilience is the capacity to recover from difficulties and keep going in the face of setbacks. Past work by Begdache has linked high-quality diets to greater resilience and poor diets to lower resilience. This new study adds a missing link: psychological flexibility appears to be the pathway through which diet and lifestyle shape resilience.
The team found that students who reported consistent healthy habits also tended to score higher on psychological flexibility and resilience. Key patterns included:
- Eating breakfast five or more times a week was associated with higher resilience, and this link ran through psychological flexibility.
- Sleeping less than six hours a night was tied to lower resilience and lower psychological flexibility.
- Exercising for at least 20 minutes was associated with greater psychological flexibility and resilience.
- Taking fish oil multiple times a week was also linked to higher psychological flexibility.
On the flip side, students with lower psychological flexibility — a more rigid way of thinking and behaving — were more likely to report habits such as frequent fast-food consumption and insufficient sleep.
Begdache explained that psychological flexibility gives people the mental space to handle their emotions rather than being swept away by them. It allows someone to mentally step back, understand what they are feeling and why, and then choose a constructive response.
“People may say that these are resilient people, but they also have what’s called psychological flexibility. They’re able to change the way they think about the situation and then use brain resources to handle the stress,” Begdache added.
In stressful moments, many people feel fused with their stress, as if there is no distance between themselves and what they are experiencing. Begdache explained that learning to notice and name emotions can help create that distance and open up options.
“When we’re under stress, we feel like we fuse with the stress. We live the stress. But psychological flexibility is like stepping back and thinking, ‘I feel this because of that. What can I do?’ Identifying your emotions sometimes helps you find the solution for these emotions,” said Begdache.
The study suggests that lifestyle changes may be one practical way to support that mental shift. Eating a regular breakfast can stabilize energy and mood. Adequate sleep helps the brain regulate emotions and think clearly. Exercise is known to boost brain chemicals involved in mood and stress regulation. Fish oil provides omega-3 fatty acids, which play roles in brain health.
While the survey cannot prove that these habits directly cause greater flexibility or resilience, the patterns point to a potentially powerful combination: small, daily choices that make it easier for the brain to do the work of coping.
For students, that could mean that simple routines — like planning a morning meal, protecting sleep time and fitting in short workouts — are not just good for physical health, but may also build mental skills that help them navigate exams, relationships and financial pressures.
Begdache emphasized that the study’s main contribution is clarifying how these pieces fit together.
“The new finding here is that diet and lifestyle don’t just make you resilient by themselves. They help you build the psychological flexibility, which, in turn, makes you a resilient person,” she said.
Next steps in this area of research could include tracking students over time or testing specific interventions, such as structured sleep or breakfast programs, to see whether changes in habits lead to measurable gains in psychological flexibility and resilience.
For now, the findings offer a hopeful message: building the capacity to bend without breaking under stress may start with manageable changes that are already within reach — a consistent breakfast, a bit more sleep and movement, and a lifestyle that supports the brain as much as the body.
Source: Binghamton University