Efficacy of Auriculotherapy and Bach Flower Remedies in improving sleep quality in university students.

• Grant number: 24/03574-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: December 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Nursing
• Principal Investigator: Dalvani Marques
• Grantee: Victória Bottene Peres
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Enfermagem. Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Changes in sleep quality result in effects on several systems, such as decreased consciousness, negative impacts on cognition, emotional health or even influencing immunological factors. In the long term, poor sleep quality is associated with serious health consequences such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, obesity, stroke and heart attack. During the pandemic and after returning to in-person activities, university students were exposed to stressful situations, with implications such as anxiety and changes in sleep quality. As sleep quality is a multifactorial problem, it is necessary to search for effective, non-pharmacological methods or methods that help reduce the use of lower-cost medications that do not present great harm to the health of the population in the medium and long term and do not cause dependence. Among the existing Integrative and Complementary Practices, the present study will use two practices, auriculotherapy, which is nothing more than the use of stimulation of points in the ear that reflect throughout the body, and Floral Therapy, which is carried out with essences taken from of plants, shrubs and some wild trees diluted with the purpose of both practices being harmonization and emotional balance. With this in mind, the present study aims to analyze the effectiveness of auriculotherapy and flower therapy in promoting and maintaining sleep quality in university students. The research will be carried out through a crossover clinical study, with university students with impaired sleep quality, divided into two groups, where each group will receive an auriculotherapy protocol or a floral therapy protocol during ten treatment sessions, where in the first four weeks of treatment each group will use one therapy, after that there will be a two-week break to reduce interference from the therapies and then, in the next four weeks, the therapies will be reversed. The collected data will be stored in an Excel database and statistically analyzed for comparison between groups. The description of qualitative variables will be done through the calculation of frequencies and percentages. And for quantitative variables, measures of central tendency and dispersion will be calculated.