Sleep habits and academic performance of Brazilian undergraduate students in the health-related fields

Considerable evidence supports the importance of sleep for memory consolidation, learning, academic performance, and mental health. College students in health-related fields are often deprived of adequate sleep due to the high volume of clinical assignments and academic workload. Studies on the relationship between sleep quality, chronotypes and academic performance in Brazilian university students are scarce. Therefore, we investigated how study and sleep habits, chronotype and sleep quality influence college performance. We conducted a questionnaire-based study with 573 health-related fields students from several Brazilian institutions. The participants filled out an individual form with personal data, answered the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The sleep-wake cycle pattern and sleep behavioural habits in the day before a test/assessment were obtained with 4 answer options of the question "On the day before the assessment in question, what was your behaviour? "I stay up late studying and don't sleep (Deprived), I stay up late studying and sleep before the test (Study-Sleep), I sleep early and wake up early and study until the exam is close (Sleep-Study), I don't change my sleep routine (No Deprived). The comparison of academic performance between the groups showed that those students who did not change their routine performed better compared to the others. Our results reveal that most Brazilian undergraduate students in the health-related fields have poor sleep quality. Sleep quality scores and chronotype´s scores were significantly associated with academic performance only in the female population. It is essential in the academic space to take care of the sleep/wake cycle and consequently the learning process, in order to develop interventions to promote the quality of sleep and quality of life for students in the health area.