Sleep Habits among Brazilian Dental Students

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the sleep habits and sleep bruxism among dental students at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. It was a cross-sectional study on 183 Brazilian dental students aged from 17 to 46 years old. The complete course curriculum consists of nine semesters. Students enrolled in the first semester, the middle semester and the final semester of the course participated in the survey. The study used a pre-tested questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was distributed during lecture classes. Sleep pattern, snoring and sleep bruxism diagnosis were based on self-reported data. We used descriptive analysis and a chi-square test as the statistical tests with 95% confidence interval. There were a greater number of women among the participants (78.7%). The mean age of the students was 21.2 years (SD=3.7). Only 38 students (20.8%) reported having equal to or more than eight hours of sleep per night. In total, 27% of students reported bad quality of sleep; 79.2% reported difficulty in concentrating while performing daytime activities; 22.5% reported snoring; and the prevalence of sleep bruxism was 21.6%. The analysis of the association between the different periods of the course with the variables studied showed no significant association. Difficulty in concentrating while performing daytime activities was an important factor among dental students.