Dados do Trabalho

Título

Sleep characteristics of blind volunteers.

Introdução

Many aspects of human physiology and behavior vary with circadian phase, including sleep, which has a sleep/wake circadian rhythm that is anatomically determined by the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Its function depends, among other factors, on the environmental information of light captured in the eye retina and conducted through the optic nerve. Thus, it is believed that people with visual impairment have changes in their sleep due to little or no perception of light.

Objetivo

The aim of the study was to characterize the sleep of blind volunteers.

Métodos

It was a cross-sectional and descriptive study, conducted in a blind association center, between June and August 2019. The inclusion criteria were: visually impaired individuals, over 18 years. Written informed consent was obtained from all the study participants. The instruments used were a sociodemographic and sleep questionnaire and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Data were presented in mean ± standard deviation, it was analyzed using descriptive statistics with Epi Info version 7.2 software.

Resultados

Seventeen volunteers participated in the research, 58.8% male, with a mean age of 50.5 ± 16.4 years, 41.2% of them studied until elementary school and 83.4% received one Brazilian basic salary. All participants use at least one assistive device, the most frequent being the cane (94.1%). Although most of them were classified as blind, 11.8% of participants could be able to see with some degree of vision in one eye, 64.5% reported light perception. They sleep, a mean of 5.5 ± 2.4 hours, with a mean latency time of 29.8 ± 30.1 minutes, 23.5% reported snoring at night. The mean PSQI was 9.7 ± 5.3, and 70.6% of the participants had a score greater than 5.

Conclusões

Most of individuals had complete visual impairment, poor sleep quality, insufficient sleep time per night and sleep latency around 30 minutes.

Palavras-chave

blind, sleep, sleep quality