Os efeitos de um programa de meditação na qualidade de sono de acadêmicos do curso de medicina

Abstract

Sleep plays a fundamental biological role in memory consolidation, normalization of endocrine functions, thermoregulation, conservation and restoration of energy, and brain energy metabolism. Due to these important functions, sleep disorders can lead to significant changes in the individual's physical, occupational, cognitive, and social functioning, in addition to substantially compromising their quality of life. Medical students are a group susceptible to sleep disorders, due to their full-time curricular load, extracurricular activities, and the high pressure and stress required to perform well and spend time studying. In addition to sleep disorders, these students are more likely to develop depression, academic burnout, stress, and anxiety. Meditation has an impact on the mental health of university students, being related to the reduction of symptoms of depression and anxiety, prevention and reduction of stress and fatigue, good cognitive performance, improvement in sleep, attention, state of consciousness, mood, and empathy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of an online mindfulness- based meditation program on sleep quality in medical students from the cities of Passo Fundo/RS and Chapecó/SC. In addition to sleep quality, secondary outcomes such as mindfulness, symptoms of depression, stress, anxiety, and academic burnout were also evaluated. A randomized clinical trial was developed, involving 22 participants who underwent an 8-week online mindfulness-based meditation program (1 weekly meeting of approximately 1 hour in duration), and 21 participants in the control group who did not participate in the program. The effects of the intervention were evaluated at the beginning, during, at the end of the program, and 8 weeks later, through the online application of the following instruments: PSQI (Pittsburgh Quality Sleep Index), ESE (Epworth Sleepiness Scale), MAAS (Mindful Attention Awareness Scale), DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale), and CBI-S (Copenhagen Burnout Inventory Student Version). Compared to the control group, the intervention demonstrated improvement in 5 weeks in sleep quality (PSQI control 8.47 x intervention 6.0, p = 0.037), anxiety (DASS-21/anxiety control 15.05 x intervention 9.56, p = 0.018) and academic burnout (CBI-S control 50.53 x intervention 37.0, p = 0.006), in addition to improvement in mindfulness (MAAS control 45.14 x intervention 58.56, p = 0.016), depression (DASS-21/depression control 15.43 x intervention 6.93, p = 0.025) and academic burnout (CBI-S control 49.21 x intervention 36.94, p = 0.013) in the 17-week follow-up, as well as improvement in sleep quality, mindfulness, depression, stress, academic burnout at the end of the program in the intervention group, with maintenance of results 2 months later compared to baseline. The online mindfulness-based meditation program can improve sleep quality and other parameters related to the mental health of future doctors, and become a tool for introducing new forms of self-care for medical students and perhaps those in the health care in general.