NURSING STUDENTS QUALITY OF SLEEP IN DORMITORIES OF URMIA UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Sleep is a physiological and reversible phenomenon. One of its primary functions is to help organisms conserve their energy resources and it has powerful effects on daytime performance, thinking, and mood. Sleep disturbances are one of the major psychological disorders. Almost 30% of the world population suffers from sleep disorders. Since there is a relationship between quality of sleep and educational progress, this descriptive study was carried out to assess nursing student's quality of sleep.

In this descriptive-analytic study, 160 nursing students that resided in Urmia dormitories of Urmia University of Medical Sciences participated in the study. Data were gathered through convenience sampling and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used. The data were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive and inferential statistical tests.

Sleep disorder prevalence in nursing students was 43.1%. The result indicated that 9.2% of boys and 9.5% of girls used hypnotics. There was a significant relationship between hypnotics use and quality of sleep (p = 0.001), so 93.3% of hypnotic drug users had low sleep quality. There was no meaningful difference about sleep disorder between boys & girl (p = 0.6). Statistical assessments indicated that there was a meaningful relation between quality of sleep and total time of night sleep (p = 0.001).

Based on this study, the prevalence of nursing students sleep disorder is high compared with the society. Regarding the advantages of good sleep and importance of resting, it is necessary to reduce causes of sleep problems, including physical, medical, mental, and environmental ones.