Dados do Trabalho

Título

Was there a change in the sleep quality and sleepiness of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Introdução

College students were abruptly exposed to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. This change was not restricted only to the methodological part, but also the variation in exposure to environmental cues such as light, social interaction, food, physical activity, among others, which influence the sleep-wake cycle. Therefore, the sleep quality and/or sleepiness of college students could have been altered during the pandemic.

Objetivo

To evaluate the sleep quality and sleepiness of college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Métodos

The research was carried out with college students (n=318) of both sexes, between 18 and 35 years old, living in the northeast region of Brazil. An electronic form was used at two times: between June and August 2020 (moment 1 - M1); and between June and August 2021 (moment 2 - M2). Individuals who answered the form only in one research moment were excluded. This electronic form contained the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), to assess sleep quality, and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, to assess the sleepiness of college students. Data were expressed as percentage, mean and standard deviation. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to investigate the normality of the data and the Wilcoxon test was used for paired analysis between the research moments. The results were analyzed using Graph Pad Prism 8.4.2, considering p<0.05 as significant. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee under protocol number: 32360720.4.0000.5208.

Resultados

The sample was 21.8 ± 3.4 years old and predominantly female (72%). Sleep quality and sleepiness showed no differences between the evaluated moments (p>0.05), with a predominance of poor sleep quality (M1: 60.1%; M2: 59.5%) and sleepiness within the normal range (M1: 69.2%; M2: 67.0%). However, when evaluating the IQSP subdomains, there was a lower latency to initiate sleep (p<0.001) and fewer sleep disturbances (p= 0.007) in M2. Despite this, college students had shorter sleep duration and worse sleep efficiency (p<0.001) in M2.

Conclusões

The college students showed no changes in sleep quality or sleepiness during the observed period of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, when analyzing self-reported sleep aspects, in the second year of the pandemic, students reduced their sleep hours, impairing their sleep efficiency.

Acknowledgement: This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001.

Palavras -chave

Sleep, sleepiness, pandemic, COVID-19, college students.