Year: 2015
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Introduction: Low quality of sleep affects our health and quality of our life. University students are one group that has sleep behaviors that can cause sleep problems. This study investigated light exposure and sleep quality in students with different sleep patterns, classified as morning or evening types. Method: The study recruited pharmacy students at Khon Kaen University and screened for morningness/eveningness using the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire Thai-version (T-MEQ). A total of 14 students were selected (10 for morning and 4 for evening type) for further evaluations of sleep quality by using the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and sleep efficacy and light exposure by actiwatch. Data were analysed by software SPSS and Actiware analysis software. Results: The average of PSQI score in morning type was 4.21, which was better than the average of PSQI score for evening type (mean PSQI = 6.73). The sleep efficacy of morning type was 88.9%, slightly higher than average of sleep efficacy of evening type (84.4%). The onset latency (time to actually get to sleep after lights out) of morning type was 9.6 minutes less than that of the evening type (20.4 minutes). Patterns of sleep of morning types were more regular than evening types, and they were exposed to lower light at night than the evening group. Conclusion: The results indicate that chronotype, i.e. sleep pattern, does affect the quality and efficiency of sleep of university students. Larger sample size is needed to confirm the findings.
Institution: Khon Kaen University
Language: Thai
Topic: Sleep and related disorders
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
Funder: Khon Kaen University
OpenAlex ID: W2120434242