Avaliação dos hábitos e qualidade de sono e seus efeitos na performance acadêmica em estudantes de medicina.

Abstract

Sleep is one of the most important biological needs for our body. It is responsible for a significant influence in the process of learning and memory consolidation. Sleep disturbances can result in serious consequences to both physical and mental well being, compromising quality of life, cognition and personality aspects, memory consolidation and learning process. The main object of this research was to evaluate sleep quality in medicine students, through the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). To verify if these questionnaires score and the body mass index (BMI) influence students’ academic performance. Questionnaires were applied to the students in the Federal University of Campina Grande in two occasions, the beginning (stage 1) and the end of the 2013.1 semester (stage 2). Students between the first and eighth semester were included, in a total of 153 participants. Students from the ninth to the twelfth semester, as well as the ones who didn ́t participate in the stage 1 were excluded. A descriptive analysis was performed with the results. There was a significant increase in the PSQI median between stage 1 and 2, which demonstrates a worse sleep quality and the end of the semester when compared to the beginning. Students who took longer to fall asleep revealed a worse PSQI. An increase in the BMI led to a worsening in the students ́ sleep quality in the first stage; however, there was no relation between BMI and academic outcome. An increase in the ESS score resulted in a worsening in academic performance for the second and third semester students. In the fifth semester, an increase in the ESS resulted in a better academic performance. When analyzing the PSQI, an increase in the score resulted in a better academic performance among the second and fifth semester students. He seventh semester presented a marginal effect for the PSQI, revealing a worse performance with the increase of the PSQI score. In conclusion, ESS and PSQI can influence academic performance, however, other variables may interfere in this relation. It is possible that a great academic demand favor students to adopt a sleep deprivation behavior, and improve performance, despite a worsening in sleep quality.