Relação da duração do deslocamento até a escola com os hábitos de sono e desempenho cognitivo em adolescentes do técnico integrado de nível médio

Abstract

Adolescents show a delayed sleep phase related to biological and psychosocial factors, leading to a contrast between sleep habits and morning school hours, which leads to sleep deprivation and irregularity. This in turn can harm their cognitive and school performance and overall health. Attention and memory may be among the impaired cognitive processes. School commuting time and the degree of urbanization from where they live are related factors. This study aims to analyze the relationship of the duration of commuting to school with the sleep-wake cycle and cognitive performance of adolescents, considering the school shift and the level of urbanization. A total of 291 students participated in the study (15.4 ± 0.9 years; 59.5% women), recruited from two units of a technical high school in RN: Natal, metropolitan region, and Lajes, less urbanized area. Sleep habits were assessed using the questionnaires: “Health and Sleep”, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Pediatric Daytime Sleepiness Scale, and sleep diaries with Maldonado Sleepiness Scale completed over 10 days. In this interval, from Tuesday to Friday, the Continuous Performance Task (assessing attention) and the Sternberg Task (working memory) were applied. Higher commuting times were associated with waking up (B=-0.65, p<0.001) and going to bed earlier in weekdays (B=-0.35; p=0.03) and weekends (B=-0.38; p=0.04), having less total time in bed in 24 hours in weekdays (B=-0.31; p=0.04), greater irregularities in wakeup times (B=0.19; p =0.04), time in bed at night (B=0.45; p=0.03) and in 24 hours (B=0.48; p=0.02), worse sleep quality (B=0.02; p=0.01), lower percentage of correct responses for memory in 5-digit (“no”) lists (B= -0.07; p=0.03). Morning shift students woke up (B=-163; p<0.001) and went to bed earlier in weekdays (B=-54; p<0.001), had shorter time in bed at night (B=-111; p<0.001) and in 24h (B=-97; p<0.001) in weekdays, greater irregularities in wakeup times (B=36; p<0.001), in time in bed at night (B=118; p<0.001) and in 24h (B=105; p<0.001), higher levels of social jetlag (B=26; p<0.001) and daytime sleepiness (B=1,3; p=0,03). Individuals residing in the less urbanized region went to bed earlier in weekdays (B=-23; p<0.001), showed longer times in bed in 24 hours in weekdays (B=18; p=0.04) and weekends (B=20; p=0,05), lower sleepiness upon waking up in weekdays (B=-0,7; p=0,002), lower percentage of correct answers in tonic alertness (B=-2.46; p=0.03), phasic alertness (B=-5,39; p=0.04) and selective attention (B=-5.1; p=0.0), but shorter reaction times for correct responses of phasic alertness (B=-39; p=0.007). Thus, the hypothesis that school commuting time, as part of school routine, and the degree of urbanization have an impact on sleep habits and working memory in adolescents is confirmed, while attention was only related to the degree of urbanization.