Investigation of the Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in Medical Students and Examination of Its Change by Classes, Gender and Body Mass Index

Abstract

Objective:Medical students are under the risk of developing sleep disorders due to heavy curriculum and long studying hours. This condition causes sleep disorders to occur more frequently in medical faculty students compared to the normal society. The present study aims to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in medical students and the examination of change according to classes.Materials and Methods:A questionnaire that based on ICSD-3 for assessing insomnia, Restless Legs syndrome (RLS) and parasomnia, Epworth Sleepiness Scale for excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS), and Berlin Questionnaire for Sleep Apnea syndrome (SAS) were used.Results:In 762 students, the prevalence value was obtained as 22.8% for total EDS, 11.2% for insomnia, 25.2% for bruxism, and 5.6% for RLS. It was concluded that 35.5% of students were under the risk of developing SAS. It was observed that no significant difference was found between the classes in term of developing a sleep disorder. Among the genders, while EDS and sleep talking were significantly high in women, sleep terror was significantly high in men. Sleep eating status was found to be significantly high frequency in students with a body mass index over 30.Conclusion:This study proved that risk of developing insomnia and SAS have a much higher frequency in medical faculty students than society.

Keywords

• Sleep disorders
• medical students
• insomnia
• sleep apnea
• excessive daytime sleepiness
• parasomnia