Measuring sleep literacy in healthcare students: an observational study

Abstract

In recent years, research has focused on the various potentialities and functions associated with so-called restorative sleep, in the general population and not only in individuals with more serious pathologies. Thus, sleep hygiene rules have been defined in order to allow, in an accessible way, everyone to actively contribute to their quality of sleep. Health students play a key role as active agents in primary care, health promotion and disease prevention. But to assume this role, as a living example and educator, they often need to increase their health literacy, which must go far beyond specific knowledge. With this observational study, we aimed to assess the actual knowledge of higher education students in courses in the area of health (School of Health of the Polytechnic of Porto), through an online questionnaire with some factual statements on this topic. It is expected that the data collected will allow the identification of misconceptions and misconceptions about the area of sleep, thus revealing which lines of intervention still need to be invested in literacy in this area.