Introduction: Poor sleep quality can result in poor academic performance and damage to students’ physical or mental health; this research aimed to examine the effects of the Salvia officinalis tea bag on the sleep quality of students.
Materials and Methods: This study was a clinical trial that was conducted on 128 students living in the dormitory using a convenient sampling method. After obtaining informed consent, the participants were randomly divided into two groups containing 64 people. Data collection instruments included a demographic questionnaire and the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Scale. The intervention group used a Salvia officinalis tea bag, and the control group received a sugar tea bag before and after the intervention. In addition, sleep quality was assessed using the same questionnaire. The data were analyzed by Kolmogorov Smirnov, independent t, Mann-Whitney, and Wilcoxon tests using the SPSS (version 20) software.
Results: A total of 57% (n=73) and 43% (n=55) of the participants were females and males, respectively. The average ages were 21.21±2.41 years and 21.43±3.44 years in the test and control groups, in respective order. The Mann-Whitney statistical test did not show a statistically significant difference between the average overall sleep quality score of the test and control groups before the intervention (P>0.05). However, after the intervention, this difference became significant (P<0.05). Wilcoxon statistical test demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference between the average score of sleep quality in the test and control groups before and after the intervention (P<0.05). Moreover, the Mann-Whitney test indicated that all components of sleep quality, except morning performance, improved between the test group and the control group after the intervention (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Salvia officinalis can be effective on all components of sleep quality except morning performance.
