Familiarity of Brazilian psychologists with basic concepts in sleep science and chronobiology

ABSTRACT

Desynchronization of circadian rhythms and sleep-wake patterns impacts biochemical, physiological, and behavioral functions, including mental processes. The complex relationship between circadian rhythms and mental health makes it challenging to determine causality between circadian desynchronization and mental disorders. Regarding the fact that psychologists act as the front line for initial mental health care, we aimed to assess the knowledge and use of sleep science and basic chronobiology by professional psychologists in Brazil. Data were collected via an online questionnaire completed by 1384 professional psychologists between October 2018 and May 2019. Our findings revealed that ±80% of psychologists reported that at least half of their patients presented some sleep-related complaints; however, only ±27% routinely inquired about sleep quality even in the absence of patient complaints. Additionally, only ±66% initiated treatments to understand these complaints, potentially influenced by the lack of prior academic exposure to biological rhythms as reported by ±76% of Brazilian psychologists interviewed. Importantly, ±15% did not believe in an association between mental health and biological rhythms, and even a significant ±67% were unfamiliar with the term chronobiology and ±63% were not able to describe any other biological rhythm except for the sleep-wake cycle. These results demonstrate that fundamental concepts in chronobiology and sleep science are unknown to a substantial proportion of Brazilian psychologists. In conclusion, we propose that this subject could be more effectively integrated into psychologists’ academic training, potentially promoting benefits through the incorporation of a chronobiological approach in mental health practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• sleep-related complaints
• biological rhythms
• Brazilian psychologist

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the participant volunteers. Luisa M. Soalheiro and Rafaella V.N. Paiva were supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES, Brazil). Beatriz J. Brandão was supported by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAPESB, Brazil).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2023.2250870.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.