Correlation Between Light Exposure and Sleep Quality of Medical Students in UMY

Context :

Sleep is enterpreted as a state of unconsciousness which can be aroused by sensory

stimulation (John E. Hall P., 2016). Everyone has their own time of sleep according to their daily
activities. Someone who has a lot of activities at night and exposed to the light such as light from the
lamp, will have bad quality and quantity of sleep. Sleep quality is a sleep satisfication which can be
measured trough several aspects such as the quantity of sleep, the barriers when starting sleep, the
time to wake up, the sleep efficiency, and disturbing condition during sleep. Bad quality of sleep can
affect the balance of physiological and psychological (Augner C., 2011). The process of sleep and
wake up are affected by circadian system (Keijzer et al., 2014). Light is the main zeitgeber (external
factor) for the circadian system. The function of light in circadian system is for producing melatonin
which can effect the process of sleep and wake up. Light information will be projected to the
circadian pacemaker in hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus ( Daan S et al., 2016).

Issue :

Light exposure such as from the lamp can significanly supressing melatonin production and
cause sleep problem . This is because light has an influence on alertness, body temperature and
melatonin hormone production (Levy et al., 1980). Bad quality of sleep has a bad effect to the
physical condition of teenager. The result of research that has been done by Cauter and his friends
shows that lack of sleep can disturb the metabolism of carbohydrate and can increase the risk of
diabetic disease. Bad quality of sleep because of unnecessary sleep can also cause an accident in
highways (Pizza et al., 2010). Another research from Ryan Cho shows that the majority of
respondents who uses light during sleep has a bad quality of sleep (Cho JR et al., 2013). Accoring to
Burgard’s research women are more likely has a bad quality of sleep because of hormonal changes
that can cause disruption in sleep quality (Burgard SA et al., 2010). Rista and her friends also did a
research on 2015 that shows 25,6% respondents who has a good quality of sleep, 15,9% they woke
up in fresh condition, 20,3% rarely wake up at night, 25.2% sleep about 7 hours per day, 48% sleep
soundly and 18.7% feel strong when doing activities (Rista et al., 2015).

Gap :

There are still fewer studies focusing on correlation between sleep quality and light
exposure in medical students. Since medical students have a lot of tasks, exams, and activities and all
of that must be completed in limited times. So, they are more likely to do their stuffs at night and
being exposed in a long time by the light at night.

Research goals :

This study was conducted to find out : (a) the effect of light exposure with sleep quality of
medical students in UMY (b) the sleeping pattern of medical students in UMY

Research question :

1. What are the effects of light exposure to the sleep quality of medical students in UMY?
2. What are the sleeping pattern of medical students in UMY?