Resumen

ESCOBAR-CORDOBA, Franklin; BENAVIDES-GELVEZ, Rafael Eduardo; MONTENEGRO-DUARTE, Hilda Gabriela  y  ESLAVA-SCHMALBACH, Javier Hernando. Excessive daytime drowsiness in ninth-semester medical students attending the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. rev.fac.med. [online]. 2011, vol.59, n.3, pp.191-200. ISSN 0120-0011.

Background. Medical students traditionally sleep very little, study during long nocturnal periods and consequently suffer excessive daytime sleepiness, thereby leading to reduced attention which affects their quality of life and academic performance. The foregoing must be added to night shifts/duty and poor knowledge regarding the hygiene of sleep. Little is known in Colombia about this symptom's prevalence and seriousness or its effects on this population or on other groups such as shift-workers (working double shifts), watchmen, sanitary personnel, pilots, soldiers, etc. Objective. Determining the incidence of excessive daytime sleepiness in ninth-semester medical students attending the Universidad Nacional de Colombia who were involved in night shifts as part of their assigned rotations and evaluating its relationship with the quality and hygiene of sleep. Materials and methods. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study which was carried out on a sample of ninth-semester medical students (76.14%; n=83/109) who agreed to participate in the investigation by signing an informed consent form. The Epworth sleepiness scale was applied as was the locally-validated Pittsburgh sleep quality index and sleep hygiene index validated in Peru. Results. The students being evaluated were 23 years old on average; 60.24% (n=50/83) of them presented excessive daytime sleepiness. It was found that 79.52% (n=66/83) were poor sleepers and 44.58% (n=37/83) had bad sleep hygiene. Conclusions. The prevalence of excessive daytime sleepiness in the population being studied was quantitatively important and higher than that found in other studies, showing a relationship with poor sleep quality and considerable poor sleep hygiene.

Palabras clave : epidemiology; students; medical; prevalence; sleep disorders; disorders of excessive somnolence (MeSH).

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