Daytime sleepiness in elementary school students: the role of sleep quality and chronotype

OBJECTIVE To investigate the occurrence of daytime sleepiness and associated sleep factors in a sample of elementary school students who attended school in the afternoon schedule. METHODS Sleep data from 363 Brazilian public school students (12.78 ± 1.36 years, 206 girls) were obtained by applying questionnaires in classrooms. All subjects attended school in the afternoon schedule, with classes starting between 1:00 and 1:20 p.m. Daytime sleepiness was assessed by the pediatric daytime sleepiness scale; sleep quality, by the mini-sleep questionnaire; and sleep patterns and chronotypes, by the Munich chronotype questionnaire. Scores equal to or greater than 15 pediatric daytime sleepiness scale points were considered as excessive daytime sleepiness. The predictive power of sleep variables on daytime sleepiness was evaluated by a multiple linear regression. RESULTS The subjects in the sample had an average time in bed greater than nine hours both on school days and on weekends. Nevertheless, 52.1% had an average pediatric daytime sleepiness scale score equal to or greater than 15 points, indicative of excessive daytime sleepiness. As for their quality of sleep, 41.1% had a very altered sleep. We observed, by a multiple linear regression, that quality of sleep (β = 0.417), chronotype (β = 0.174), mid-sleep on school days (β = 0.138), and time in bed (β = - 0.091) were all significant in predicting daytime sleepiness. CONCLUSION This study showed the occurrence of excessive daytime sleepiness in non-sleep deprived students who attended school in the afternoon. The worst quality of sleep and eveningness had a greater predictive power on daytime sleepiness than time in bed. Therefore, we must consider other factors in addition to sleep duration when planning interventions for daytime sleepiness

Changes in adolescents’ sleep during COVID-19 outbreak reveal the inadequacy of early morning school schedules

Objectives: The forced closure of schools during the COVID-19 outbreak imposed on adolescents a new reality of home-schooling. This new situation has affected adolescent sleep patterns due to the absence of the pressure to wake up earlier induced by school times during pandemic. This study aimed to investigate the changes in sleep and napping habits in Brazilian adolescents during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: A sample of 259 high school adolescents (mean age = 15.5 years) reported sleep and napping habits by means validated questionnaires in both baseline year (March-June 2019) and during COVID-19 lockdown (July 2020). Results: The tendency to eveningness was higher and daytime sleepiness was reduced during the social isolation. Time in bed (TIB) increased by more than 2 hours and sleep onset time was delayed during the pandemic. More adolescents reported getting enough TIB during the pandemic. Moreover, sleepiness during remote classes was reduced compared to that reported during traditional classes one year before. The nap habit decreased during the pandemic compared to the baseline year. Discussion: The lack of early wake-up pressure to attend school in the morning could explain the sleep improvements perceived during the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, parents, educators, and policy makers need to discuss more feasible school times for adolescents in order to implement these changes as soon as returning to presential/hybrid learning

Adolescents' sleep/wake patterns and school schedules: towards flexibility

In the literature, two main trends may be identified in the countermeasures associated to adolescents’ sleep restriction: sleep education and changes in the school start times (SSTs). However, school educational programmes have been able to increase knowledge about sleep, which did not necessarily result in behavioural changes. Later SSTs have been proposed as a strategy to reduce the adolescents’ sleep restriction, but there is no consensus about the change. Longitudinal studies in adolescent populations are urgently needed in order to determine the efficacy of interventions aiming at a change in SSTs. Academic, behavioural, health and well-being variables could be monitored for an extensive period before and after implementing the new school schedule options, thereby enabling a within-subject experimental design. It is no longer acceptable to impose the “one-size-fits-all” approach on the SSTs

Re-examining sleep׳s effect on motor skills: How to access performance on the finger tapping task?

AbstractHere our goal was to determine the magnitude of sleep-related motor skill enhancement. Performance on the finger tapping task (FTT) was evaluated after a 90min daytime nap (n=15) or after quiet wakefulness (n=15). By introducing a slight modification in the formula used to calculate the offline gains we were able to refine the estimated magnitude of sleep׳s effect on motor skills. The raw value of improvement after a nap decreased after this correction (from ~15% to ~5%), but remained significantly higher than the control. These results suggest that sleep does indeed play a role in motor skill consolidation

Re-examining sleep׳s effect on motor skills: How to access performance on the finger tapping task?

AbstractHere our goal was to determine the magnitude of sleep-related motor skill enhancement. Performance on the finger tapping task (FTT) was evaluated after a 90min daytime nap (n=15) or after quiet wakefulness (n=15). By introducing a slight modification in the formula used to calculate the offline gains we were able to refine the estimated magnitude of sleep׳s effect on motor skills. The raw value of improvement after a nap decreased after this correction (from ~15% to ~5%), but remained significantly higher than the control. These results suggest that sleep does indeed play a role in motor skill consolidation

Interação entre sincronizadores fóticos e sociais: repercussões para a saúde humana

The light/dark cycle is considered the most important zeitgeber of mammals’ rhythms. For humans, however, the advent of electric lighting changed synchronization patterns. The exposure to artificial light during the dark phase, especially due to work and evening school, and TV/internet habits, has been associated with desynchronization of circadian rhythms. A variety of basic and applied research has demonstrated the consequences of being out-of-sync for health. The objective of this paper is to discuss the main consequences of the interaction between social synchronizers and the natural light/dark cycle, especially considering studies on the consequences for the human health in Brazilian populationsO ciclo claro/escuro é considerado o mais importante zeitgeber dos ritmos de mamíferos. No entanto, em humanos, o advento da luz elétrica alterou os padrões de sincronização. A exposição à luz artificial durante a fase escura, especialmente em função de situações de trabalho e estudo noturno, viagens transmeridianas e hábitos como TV e internet, está associada à dessincronização dos ritmos circadianos. Uma variedade de pesquisas básicas e aplicadas vem demonstrando as consequências dessa falta de sincronização. Assim, o objetivo deste estudo foi discutir, em estudos com populações brasileiras, as principais consequências das interações entre sincronizadores sociais e o ciclo claro/escuro, com especial atenção às questões de saúde human

Medicina da noite: da Cronobiologia à prática clínica

Resenha do livro: MEDICINA DA NOITE: DA CRONOBIOLOGIA À PRÁTICA CLÍNICA. Jansen JM, Lopes AJ, Jansen U, Capone D, Maeda TY, Noronha A, Magalhães G, organizadores. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fiocruz; 2007.Submitted by Sandra Infurna ([email protected]) on 2019-04-02T13:06:02Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucia_Rotenberg_etal_IOC_2008.pdf: 78624 bytes, checksum: d06303bbf029c7fba3b995edfe3b4b1b (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by Sandra Infurna ([email protected]) on 2019-04-02T13:18:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucia_Rotenberg_etal_IOC_2008.pdf: 78624 bytes, checksum: d06303bbf029c7fba3b995edfe3b4b1b (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2019-04-02T13:18:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucia_Rotenberg_etal_IOC_2008.pdf: 78624 bytes, checksum: d06303bbf029c7fba3b995edfe3b4b1b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Saúde Pública. São Paulo, SP, Brasil.Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ. Brasil.Universidade Federal do Paraná. Setor de Ciências Biológicas. Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil.Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Saúde Pública. São Paulo, SP, Brasil.Universidade de São Paulo. Escola de Artes, Ciências e Humanidades. São Paulo, SP, Brasil

Factors associated with sleep quality in Physical Therapy students

A privação de sono é uma situação comum entre os estudantes e pode causar problemas de saúde e de aprendizagem. Dessa forma, o objetivo deste estudo foi analisar o padrão de sono de estudantes universitários do curso de fisioterapia e os fatores associados à qualidade de sono. Participaram do estudo 199 alunos do curso de Fisioterapia. Para avaliação da qualidade do sono, foi utilizado o Índice de Qualidade do Sono de Pittsburgh. Variáveis ambientais, biológicas e sociais foram obtidas e sua relação com qualidade de sono foi analisada. Pode-se observar que 51,75% dos estudantes apresentaram qualidade do sono ruim, a qual estava associada com a menor duração do sono (pSleep deprivation is a common situation among students and can cause health problems and learning difficulties. On this way, the aim of the study was to analyze the sleep pattern of physical therapy university students, as well as the associated factors with quality of sleep. A total of 199 physical therapy students participate of the study. To asses sleep quality, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used. Environmental, biological and social variables were investigated and their relations to sleep quality were analyzed. It was shown that 51.75% of the students showed poor sleep quality, which has been associated with shorter sleep duration (

A fresh look at the use of nonparametric analysis in actimetry

Actimetry has been used to estimate the sleep–wake cycle instead of the rest-activity rhythm. Although algorithms for assessing sleep from actimetry data exist, it is useful to analyze the rest-activity rhythm using nonparametric methods. This would then allow rest-activity rhythm stability, fragmentation and amplitude to be quantified. In addition, sleep and wakefulness efficiency can be quantified separately. These variables have been used in studies analyzing the effect of age, diseases and their respective treatments on human circadian rhythmicity. In this study, we carried out a comprehensive analysis of the main results from published articles and devised a functional model of interaction among the several components involved in generating the sleep–wake cycle. The nonparametric variables render it possible to infer the main characteristics of circadian rhythms, such as synchronization with a zeitgeber, and its amplitude and robustnes