Evaluation of Sleep Quality in Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relation between teachers’ perceived fear of the pandemic and their sleep quality and stress levels in the COVID-19 pandemic. The research is a descriptive study and was carried out with 218 teachers in a district of İstanbul between February and March 2021. Questionnaire form was used in the study. The questionnaire includes Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Perceived Stress Scale, COVID-19 Fear Scale. The statistical procedures used were the Pearson Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation test. In the study, 35.3% of the participants were 30 years old and under, 41.8% were between 31-40 years old and their average age was 35.0 ± 8.9. In the study, it was determined that 75.2% of the teachers were women, 59.6% were married, 78.9% had a bachelor’s degree, 36.2% had a working period of five years or under, and 45.4% worked at high school. It was determined that 45.9% of the teachers participating in the study had low sleep quality. A strong positive correlation was determined between the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index scores and the Perceived Stress Scale scores of the study participants. The study revealed that nearly half of the teachers had poor sleep quality and that those with poor sleep quality had shorter sleep times.