Virginia Research Day 2021

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The Effect Of Sleep and Sleep Training on Wellness and Performance of Medical School Students John Yassa (OMS-II); Mike Yusuf (OMS-II); and Scott Severance, PhD (Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Sciences)

Discussion At the end of our study, we will evaluate whether the sleep training, which was designed based on published research, provided to the medical students had any effect on their sleep schedule, sleep quality, mental health, and academic performance. If the results show improvements of the afore- mentioned metrics, an argument can be made to include evidence-based sleep training specifically tailored to medical students during orientation. The unique mental health struggles of medical students require more attention. Our research provides a starting point for further investigation into what practices can be modified to improve the performance of medical students without sacrificing their health. References (1)Beck AT, Epstein N, Brown G, Steer RA. An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties. J Consult Clin Psychol . 1988;56(6):893. (2.)Beck AT, Steer RA, Brown GK. (1996). BDI-II. Beck depression inventory. San Antonio: The Psychological Corporation (3.) Cvejic, Erin, et al. “Can You Snooze Your Way to an ‘A’? Exploring the Complex Relationship between Sleep, Autonomic Activity, Wellbeing and Performance in Medical Students.” The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry , vol. 52, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 39–46. (4.)Genzel, L., et al. “Sleep Timing Is More Important than Sleep Length or Quality for Medical School Performance.” Chronobiology International , vol. 30, no. 6, July 2013, pp. 766–771. (5)Mokros, Łukasz, et al. “Sleep Quality, Chronotype, Temperament and Bipolar Features as Predictors of Depressive Symptoms among Medical Students.” Chronobiology International , vol. 34, no. 6, 2017, pp. 708–720. (6)Buysse, D.J., Reynolds, C.F., Monk, T.H., Berman, S.R., & Kupfer, D.J. (1989). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): A new instrument for psychiatric research and practice. Psychiatry Research , 28(2), 193-213. (7)Medeiros ALD, Mendes DBF, Lima PF, et al. (2001) The relationships between sleep-wake cycle and academic performance in medical students. Biological Rhythm Research 32: 263–270 (8)Aktekin M, Karaman T, Senol YY, Erdem S, Erengin H, Akaydin M. Anxiety, depression and stressful life events among medical students: a prospective study in Antalya, Turkey. Med Educ. 2001;35(1):12-17. (9) Why Sleep is important for health: A psychoneuroimmunology perspective . Annual Review of Psychology 66: 143–172

Introduction Medical school education places future physicians in a position where they seemingly must sacrifice certain self-care practices in order to keep up with their academic demands 7 . Additionally, medical students experience increased mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression throughout their schooling 8 . Published research has demonstrated that medical students who had consistent and earlier bedtimes tended to perform better academically and reported decreased psychological distress 3,4 . We designed a sleep study to answer the following two questions: Is there a healthier way for medical students to implement sleep habits that accommodate their demanding daily routines? Will a consistent sleep schedule improve sleep quality, affect academic performance, and reduce anxiety and depression? Methods Participants were asked to complete sleep diaries Monday – Friday for eight weeks. To document the subjects’ wellbeing, the Beck Depression Index 2 and the Beck Anxiety Index 1 were administered once a month. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was also given once a month to determine sleep quality over the previous four weeks. The participants' grades were reviewed in a de- identified manner to look for any connection between sleep and academic performance. Lastly, subjects were administered a short survey at the end of the study soliciting their views on the effect the sleep training had on their sleep quality, wellbeing, and academic performance. Data collection is ongoing. Presented here are preliminary control and experimental group data. We expect to see trend lines that reflect sleep time consistency. Using similar graphs, trend lines, and standard deviation, we plan to compare the students’ sleep time consistency to their academic performance, sleep quality, and mental health indices.

Preliminary Results

Paricipant (Experimental) Sleep Schedule

1:12:00

0:43:12

0:14:24

23:45:36

y = -0.0005x + 22.448

23:16:48

22:48:00

Sleep Time

22:19:12

21:50:24

21:21:36

20:52:48

20:24:00

10/6

10/16

10/26

11/5

11/15

11/25

12/5

12/15

Date

Participant (Control) - Sleep Schedule

6:00:00

4:48:00

3:36:00

2:24:00

y = 0.0005x - 19.63

Sleep TIme

1:12:00

0:00:00