Introduction

Sleep is a primary need of the body. Sleep deprivation may result in severe irregularities in the process of thinking, cognitive processes, and mental health, and it may even lead to death. Sleep disorders constitute a common problem in society, frequently defined as a public health problem. The objective of this article is to assess sleep disorders among master’s degree students majoring in nursing.

Material and methods

The subject of the research was a group of 150 students of master’s degree studies majoring in nursing at the State Higher Vocational School in Tarnow, aged 23 to 58 years, from 15.02.106 to 15.04.2016. The authors’ survey, the Athens Insomnia Scale, and the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, were used in the research. Verification between the variables was conducted using the c2 independence test and the Kruskal-Wallis test. A significance level of p < 0.05 was assumed.

Results

Students mostly went to sleep between 22.00 and midnight (44%), and woke up at various hours (46%). The participants most frequently indicated physical consequences as consequences of sleep disorders (45.3%), and the most frequent behaviour in the last month among the participants was everyday consumption of stimulants (54.8%). Most of the participants knew the principles of sleep hygiene (74.7%), and application of the principles of the appropriate sleep hygiene was declared by a small number of the participants (10.7%).

Conclusions

Students of master’s degree studies majoring in nursing had inappropriate sleep hygiene. The behaviours impacting the sleep quality of the participants were not satisfactory.