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Coffyn S1, Ferguson R1, Jamison S1, Sanders K1, Siengsukon C1
1University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, United States
Background: Evidence demonstrates that sleep enhances learning and consolidates memories. Furthermore, sleep deprivation reduces attention, speed of information processing, and executive function ability and is associated with increased stress, anxiety, and depression. Evidence suggests that poor sleep quality or poor sleep hygiene may affect the academic performance of college and medical students, but has not yet been examined in physical therapy students.
Purpose: To determine the association between sleep quality, sleep hygiene, and cognitive performance in physical therapy students.
Methods: Fifty students enrolled in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program (25.2 ± 2.11 years old) participated in the study. Participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality and the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) to assess sleep hygiene (behaviors and environmental conditions that promote sleep quality). Participants then completed the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) to assess sustained attention and the Trail-Making Task (TMT) to assess the executive functioning. The outcomes of interest from the CPT were Detectability which indicates ability to discriminate between targets and non-targets as well as Omissions, Commissions, and Hit Reaction Time which are indicators of attention and impulsivity. The outcome from the TMT was a normalizing score from the 3 conditions. Spearman's correlations were performed to assess the association between sleep quality, sleep hygiene, and outcomes on the CPT and TMT.
Results: Twenty-two of the 50 students (43.1%) presented with poor sleep quality (>5 on PSQI). There was a significant positive correlation between SHI and Detectability (rs= 0.297, p= .036) and ommissions (rs=.343, p=.015), but no significant correlation between SHI and commissions, HRT, or TMT. There were no significant correlations between PSQI and cognitive performance outcomes.
Conclusion(s): Nearly half of the participants were identified as having poor sleep quality, which could potentially impact the students' health and wellbeing. Interestingly, sleep quality was not associated with performance on the CPT or TMT. However, poorer sleep hygiene was associated with decreased discrimination and inattention. Future studies should consider how anxiety, stress, or symptoms of depression may interact with or impact sleep hygiene, sleep quality, and cognitive task performance.
Implications: Physical therapy programs may consider partnering with student health services on campus to provide education to PT students on the importance of sleep quality and good sleep hygiene practice and methods to improve sleep quality and sleep hygiene practices if warranted. Decreased discrimination and inattention could impact academic or clinical performance, although future research is needed to verify that contention.
Keywords: Sleep, physical therapy students, cognitive performance
Funding acknowledgements: None
Purpose: To determine the association between sleep quality, sleep hygiene, and cognitive performance in physical therapy students.
Methods: Fifty students enrolled in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program (25.2 ± 2.11 years old) participated in the study. Participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality and the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) to assess sleep hygiene (behaviors and environmental conditions that promote sleep quality). Participants then completed the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) to assess sustained attention and the Trail-Making Task (TMT) to assess the executive functioning. The outcomes of interest from the CPT were Detectability which indicates ability to discriminate between targets and non-targets as well as Omissions, Commissions, and Hit Reaction Time which are indicators of attention and impulsivity. The outcome from the TMT was a normalizing score from the 3 conditions. Spearman's correlations were performed to assess the association between sleep quality, sleep hygiene, and outcomes on the CPT and TMT.
Results: Twenty-two of the 50 students (43.1%) presented with poor sleep quality (>5 on PSQI). There was a significant positive correlation between SHI and Detectability (rs= 0.297, p= .036) and ommissions (rs=.343, p=.015), but no significant correlation between SHI and commissions, HRT, or TMT. There were no significant correlations between PSQI and cognitive performance outcomes.
Conclusion(s): Nearly half of the participants were identified as having poor sleep quality, which could potentially impact the students' health and wellbeing. Interestingly, sleep quality was not associated with performance on the CPT or TMT. However, poorer sleep hygiene was associated with decreased discrimination and inattention. Future studies should consider how anxiety, stress, or symptoms of depression may interact with or impact sleep hygiene, sleep quality, and cognitive task performance.
Implications: Physical therapy programs may consider partnering with student health services on campus to provide education to PT students on the importance of sleep quality and good sleep hygiene practice and methods to improve sleep quality and sleep hygiene practices if warranted. Decreased discrimination and inattention could impact academic or clinical performance, although future research is needed to verify that contention.
Keywords: Sleep, physical therapy students, cognitive performance
Funding acknowledgements: None
Topic: Education
Ethics approval required: Yes
Institution: University of Kansas Medical Center
Ethics committee: Institutional Review Board
Ethics number: 3411
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
