Dados do Trabalho

Título

EVALUATION OF SLEEP QUALITY AND WORK IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Introdução

Sleep is a fundamental element for health and quality of life, and can be altered by work and life conditions. The routine of university students has been changing over the past few years, with the increase of students who combine study with work, which can overload them and affect their sleep quality.

Objetivo

To evaluate the association between sleep quality and work in university students.

Métodos

Cross-sectional study with students of Londrina State University in 2019. The association between the dependent variable, sleep quality, obtained through Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the independent variables, work (yes or no) and weekly workload (1-20 or ≤21 hours), was performed by binary logistic regression adjusted for age, body mass index, sex, race, grade and study period. The adjusted analyses were also performed stratified by sex and study period.

Resultados

Of the 12.536 university students regularly enrolled and over 18 years old, 2.725 (21.7%) participated in the study. The sample consisted of 68.4% women, 22.2% morning students, 4.8% evening, 27.3% night and 45.7% full-time. Of the total, 960 reported working (35.2%), and, of those, 642 (66.9%) reported working 1-20 hours a week. For those who study at night, working increased the chances of worse sleep quality (odds ratio 1.42; 95% confidence interval 1.01-1.99; p=0.045). No association was found between work or workload with sleep quality, both in the total population and stratified by sex or study period for other study periods.

Conclusões

Despite the association found in other studies, between work and higher workload concomitant with graduation, and poor sleep quality, this study found an association only for night students. These results evidence the complexity of the theme, seeing as work can improve family income and decrease other risk factors that affect sleep quality. This association needs to be further explored in longitudinal studies and with the verification of variables not observed in this study.

Palavras-chave

Sleep; Work; Students; Universities.