Relationship between the level of knowledge on sleep and the habits and quality of sleep and cognitive performance of university adolescents
College students; sleep habits; sleep quality; level of knowledge on sleep; working memory.
The phase delay observed in adolescence tends to persist after the admission of young people to the university, due, among other factors, to the increase in academic demand, since the beginning of graduation. Many students, therefore, use licit and illicit substances to minimize the effects of daytime sleepiness, caused by the chronic partial sleep deprivation produced during the weekday. This behavior can then modify the patterns of habit and the quality of sleep, causing, in turn, damages in the working memory of those who study in the morning. Given the importance of this memory for the acquisition of learning and the importance of knowledge for decision making, the present study proposes to investigate the relationship between the level of knowledge about sleep and habits and quality of sleep, and the morning working memory of freshmen. To characterize the habits and quality of sleep, participants will respond to the questionnaires: "Health and Sleep," "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index," Horne & Östberg Matutinity-Occasionality Questionnaire (chronotype), and "Sleep Diary" as subjective measures; and will use an actiwatch as objective measure for 10 days, along with the Sleep Diary. Working memory will be measured through a task that evaluates the phonological component (Sternberg, 1969). The data collect will be performed with undergraduates admitted at the university in 2018.1 and 2018.2, and the cognitive performance task will be applied at 7:00h, that is the usual class starting time.