Atividade física, qualidade do sono, cronótipo e desempenho acadêmico de estudantes universitários

Abstract

Introduction: University students tend to adopt negative health behaviors, among them, the low level of physical activity and poor sleep habits, making the graduation phase marked by changes in lifestyle. However, low levels of physical activity and few hours of sleep are associated with both poor educational outcomes and poor physical and mental health outcomes. Objective: The objective of this study was to identify and correlate the level of physical activity with changes in sleep indicators and academic performance in university students. Materials and Methods: 57 students were evaluated, 35 (61.4%) from the Nursing course and 22 (38.6%) from the Physical Education course aged between 18 and 40 years (25.2 ±4.6). Physical activity was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnair (IPAQ), chronotype identification was performed using the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) and sleep quality was determined using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Academic performance was verified through curricular components. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to assess the distribution of data, using the parametric Student t test and the non-parametric Mann-Whitney test. The chi-square test for categorical variables and the Spearman correlation test were also used. Results: The students' physical activity score is not significantly related to academic performance for either the Nursing group or the Physical Education group. Likewise, sleep quality and chronotype have no significant relationship with academic performance. Conclusion: University students of Physical Education and Nursing courses do not differ in terms of classification in indicators of physical activity, chronotype, sleep quality and academic performance. And the level of physical activity, the chronotype, the sleep quality index are not associated with university academic performance.