Fostering the sleep instructional guidelines for nursing students regarding their sleep quality, academic performance and psychosocial behavior

Abstract

Background and Objective: Sleep is a basic human need and has a necessary role in individual’s life, functioning, overall health and well-being. Sleep is necessary for college students’ intellectual, emotional and physical health, also for their cognitive performance that significantly affected by sleep quality. Aim: To investigate the effect of fostering the sleep instructional guidelines for nursing students regarding their sleep quality, academic performance and psychosocial behavior.

Methods: Design: A quasi-experimental study design was utilized. Setting: Faculty of Nursing at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah Al-Mukramh affiliated to the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Sample: A purposive sample composed of 85 males and females nursing students from all academic years. Tools: Three tools were used Pre & Post including: (1) A self-administered Questionnaire Sheet, (2) Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), and (3) Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

Results: Slightly more than three quarters (78.82%) of nursing students their ages were ranged from 20-22 years and 69.41% of them were females. More than one fourth (27.06%) of students were having good sleep and 72.94% of them had poor sleep pre the sleep instructional guidelines compared with 81.18% and 18.82% of them post providing the instructional guidelines respectively.

Conclusions: Fostering the instructional guidelines regarding sleep had positive effects on nursing students' sleep patterns in the form of sleep quality, bedtime at night, sleeping latency, sleeping efficiency and disturbances. In addition to enhancing students' academic performance and modifying their psychosocial behavior regarding daytime dysfunction, coffee consuming in the evening, bedroom environment, social isolation, and use of social media. Recommendations: Future research should carry out for university students' sleep patterns on a broad category as a regional research project all over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) involving multidisciplinary team as doctors, nurses, psychologists, sociologists and nutritionists.