Dados do Trabalho

Título

DOES ACADEMIC DEMAND, USE OF ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND DOMESTIC CHORES RELATED TO SLEEP/WAKE CYCLE OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS?

Introdução

Admission to the university is considered a milestone in the lives of many young people. However, it can be a stressful experience and may contribute to the emergence of unhealthy habits which may interfere with the sleep/wake cycle.

Objetivo

To evaluate the sleep/wake cycle of university students according to academic demand, electronic use and household chores during the week and weekend.

Métodos

This study was conducted with 297 university students of both sexes (♂=26,3%; ♀=73,7%) from Nursing, Nutrition, Physiotherapy and Psychology undergraduate courses. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale, Munich Chronotype Questionnaire and “A Saúde e o Sono questionnaire” were used. The latter evaluates the sleep/wake cycle (SWC) at week and weekend, and the reasons reported by students for sleep and wake up times (academic demand, use of electronics devices and household chores). The students were divided into two groups (presence or absence of report) and were compared by the Mann Whitney test. It was considered a significance level of 5%.

Resultados

The average age of the students was 21.2 ± 4.0 years. Regarding the reasons given for bedtime in the week, those who reported having academic demand showed higher daytime sleepiness (p = 0.003), and those who reported using electronics devices showed worse sleep quality (p = 0.001), slept 27 minutes later (p = 0.001) and 31 minutes longer than those who do not use electronic device. Over the weekend, students who reported academic demand (p = 0.028) and use of electronics devices (p = 0.009) went to bed later and showed longer duration when compared to those who did not report. Regarding the reasons given for wake-up time in the week, only academic demand was related to greater irregularity in the SWC (p = 0.022). However, over the weekend, students who reported wake-up due to academic demand or household chores showed less irregularity in the SWC, and they presented earlier bedtime and wake-up time; and longer duration compared to those who do not reported these reasons.

Conclusões

The results indicated that the use of electronics devices and academic demand influence the sleep and wake pattern of the undergraduate’s students.

Palavras-chave

Diurnal sleepiness; Sleep quality; Student Health