Avaliação do padrão de sono dos estudantes de medicina da Escola Multicampi de Ciências Médicas do Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

Sleep disturbances are common in medical students and may harm academic formation. Curricular demands tend to desynchronize the sleep-wake cycle and alter sleep quality, sometimes requiring students to choose between maintaining sleep pattern regularity or meeting academic demands. The present study evaluated sleep pattern in medical students at Medical Science Multicampi School of Rio Grande do Norte, located in Caicó-RN, which adopts a Problem Based Learning (PBL) curriculum, previously approved by the Ethics Committee FACISA / UFRN - No. 2,042,796. Data collection was performed with medical students in the first three years of graduation, during May of 2017. Three questionnaires were applied: (1) Questionnaire of Munich, for characterization of sleep pattern and chronotype; (2) Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESE) and (3) Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Participated in this study, 118 students who volunteered, between ages of 22.4 ± 4.45 y.o., higher prevalence of males, single, average body weight and no regular medication intake. The results show that students sleep 7 hours/night on weekdays and 9 hours/night on weekends, evidencing a sleep pattern of deprivation and extension. It was found a higher prevalence in intermediate chronotype with tendency to eveningness on the sample. Complaints about excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) were reported by 54.3% of the students (ESE score: 10.78 ± 3.72). In addition, 88.1% showed poor sleep quality (SQ) (PSQI score: 8.86 ± 2.91). A positive correlation between EDS and SQ was found (Pearson, p < 0.05). Men presented a higher EDS and poorer sleep quality (PSQ); However, no significant gender related differences were found in these variants (test X2 ; p > 0.05). Binary logistics regression tests show academic year as factor associated to EDS complaint, regardless of gender, age, chronotype, medication use and sleep quality, so that first year students had a higher EDS chance when compared to second- and third-year ones (p < 0,05). The shortest sleep duration on weekdays suggests a sleep deprivation caused by increased of study hours. Intermediate chronotype, which slightly differs from expected for this age, may be related to morningness social habits of a countryside town like Caicó-RN. High indexes to EDS and PSQ observed may be associated with high academic demands on the PBL medical course, which would be even harder for newcomers. Knowing that sleep deprivation, EDS and PSQ may harm academic training, the promotion of sleep hygiene programs to raise awareness about the importance of regular sleep in students, that suits their academic lives and role as health providers in the professional context is indispensable.