Association of sleep quality and academic profile with stress of nursing students

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the association between sleep quality and academic profile with the level of stress among nursing students. Method: this is a cross-sectional, analytical research, with quantitative approach, performed with 117 nursing students by means of a questionnaire to evaluate academic stress in nursing students and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Data were collected in 2016. Data analysis was performed through Fisher’s exact test and Student’s t-test for independent samples. Results: there was a predominance of medium level of stress (51.3%), followed by a high level of stress (42.7%) and poor sleep quality (94.8%). Students who took, on average, more time to reach the institution of education (p=0.001), studying more hours per day (p=0.014) and performing work activities (p=0.013), had a higher level of stress. There was a significant association between academic stress and sleep quality (p<0.0001). Conclusion: in addition to the academic factors, students experienced personal and social situations that were associated with the level of stress, which affected negatively the quality of sleep and could affect the learning process.