Relação entre qualidade do sono e estresse em estudantes de Medicina de uma instituição pública

Abstract

Introduction: Medical students face intense study hours and practical activities, which can impair sleep quality and increase stress levels. Understanding the relationship between sleep and stress in these individuals is important to guide health promotion and educational strategies. Objective: To investigate the relationship between sleep quality and stress in medical students from a public institution. Method: A cross-sectional, descriptive, and quantitative study was conducted with 255 medical students. The applied instruments were the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) to assess psychological stress. Continuous variables were analyzed using Student’s t-test and ANOVA. Additionally, correlations were verified using Pearson’s correlation test. The significance level was set at p<0.05. Results: Poor sleep quality was observed in 77.3% of participants, and stress was estimated in 63.9%. A moderate positive correlation was found between PSQI and GHQ-12 scores (r=0.60; p<0.01). No statistically significant associations were found between sleep quality or stress and sociodemographic variables such as age, sex, or year of study. Conclusion: A high prevalence of these disorders was observed in the studied population. Furthermore, the moderate correlation between scores suggests an association between poor sleep and stress. These findings reinforce the need to develop public policies aimed at providing a healthier environment for the training of these future healthcare professionals.