Examining the Sleep Habits of Nursing Department Students and the Affective Factors

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive study is to evaluate the sleep habits of the nursing department students in the Health High School of Tunceli University and the affective factors. Method: The study was conducted between 5 and 24 February 2015. All the students studying in the nursing department were included in the study. A questionnaire prepared by the researchers upon literature review was applied to the nursing students in the classroom. The obtained data were assessed in SPSS program by analyzing number, percentage, chi square, independent variables for t test and F test. Results: The average age was 21.1±1.6 and 55.1% of them were female students. The average monthly income of the students was 473.5±163.9 TL. and 25.4% were smokers. PUKI score average was 6.39±3.82, 56.7% had more than 6 points, 45.8% slept for 6-7 hours a day, and 28.8% slept for 8-9 hours. The PUKI mean score was higher in a statistically significant manner among smokers compared to nonsmokers (7.96±4.11; 5.86±3.59), among those perceiving their school success bad compared to those perceiving their school success excellent (9.42±1.87; 5.26±1.33), among the freshmen to the senior students (8.35±3.08; 5.04±3.18), and among those eating and drinking before sleeping compared to those who did not (7.21±3.86; 5.36±3.55) (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was observed that the students had considerably sleeping problems; and the sleeping quality was correlated to smoking, academic success, eating-drinking before sleeping, and the year studied in the school. It is recommended to inform the students about the importance of sleeping and the factors related to sleeping quality.