Students Deserve Sleep Too...

Sleep and physical activity are both important factors in healthy living, but unfortunately these are the very things medical residency students often lack which can lead to depression. Obstacles such as heavy workloads and shift work deprive students time to sleep and exercise.

This study ran across a span of 6 months in attempt to analyze how sleeping patterns, physical activity and mood were affected in students. Real time assessments were used to measure these factors by keeping track of sleep duration, mood ratings and step count. Researchers hypothesized that negative mood would come from lack of sleep and inactivity, and that negative mood and inactivity would perpetuate that tendency to get less sleep. They also hypothesized that interns that experienced the most change in sleep patterns would encounter loss of sleep and negative mood.

The measurements of sleep, mood and physical activity taken before the internship were meant to establish a baseline reporting. During their internship, a wrist device called Fitbit One was used to monitor sleep and estimate total step count. To record daily mood, automated messages were sent asking to report average mood on a scale of one to ten. The results indicated that all areas of sleep, activity and mood decreased after internship had begun. Moreover, this study also showed that getting more sleep is correlated with better mood, although this relationship is not bi-directional. A result that contradicted the initial hypothesis was that physical activity did not lead to more sleep. However sleep and mood were correlated, and change in sleeping patterns caused by shift work negatively impacted both factors.

Physical activity is an important factor in psychological well-being and stress regulation, which is why it should warrant more attention and be further studied. The reporting of mood, sleep and physical activity were negatively impacted after the start of the internship program. This may be attributed to long and odd work hours which challenged the students’ circadian rhythm (otherwise known as our biological clock). It was noted that with a greater amount of sleep and more physical activity, the mood of the individual was the highest.

Prior to internships, students should be informed that it would be beneficial to consider the earlier work schedule for residency and accommodate their sleeping patterns accordingly. Another step that should be taken is to provide students with tips that would help them re-adjust their sleep patterns to accommodate shift work. Further studies should investigate if adjusting work schedules to better fit with the students’ natural sleeping patterns would lead to better mood and improved sleep.

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Source:

• Kalmbach, D. A., Fang, Y., Arnedt, J. T., Cochran, A. L., Deldin, P. J., Kaplin, A. I., & Sen, S. (2018). Effects of Sleep, Physical Activity, and Shift Work on Daily Mood: A Prospective Mobile Monitoring Study of Medical Interns. Journal of General Internal Medicine,33(6), 914-920. doi:10.1007/s11606-018-4373-2