Apollo Medicine (Jan 2020)

Assessment of insomnia and sleep quality among medical students-benghazi university: A cross-sectional study

  • Rabha A El Sahly,
  • Abdelnasir M Ahmed,
  • Salah Eldin A. Amer,
  • Khaled D Alsaeiti

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4103/am.am_22_20
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 2
pp. 73 – 77

Abstract

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Background: Academic pressure and its associated stress are responsible for disturbances in the circadian cycle of the students, Medical students have a stressful academic career, so it is important to identify those students with sleep issues, extent of issues and factors contributing to it. The aim of the current study is to determine the frequency of poor sleep quality among fourth and fifth year medical students at Faculty of Medicine, Benghazi university; using the PSQI. Materials and Methods: An observational, cross-sectional study conducted anonymously and voluntarily with undergraduate fourth and fifth year medical students at faculty of medicine, Benghazi university.150 students were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results: 150 medical students were participated in the study, 95(63.3%) were females and 55 (36.7%) were males. The sample's mean age was 26.1 ± 1.1 years (range = 23–30 years). More than half the sample (52.7%) were sleeping alone, 44.7% were sharing a room with a roommate, and 2.7% were married . The calculated means of total PSQI, nocturnal sleep duration, and sleep latency were 7.04 ± 3.47 hours, 6.23 ± 1.51 hours, 38.7 ± 39.1 minutes, respectively. The average wake-up time and The average bedtime were 7.45 ± 1.5, and 4.49 ± 7.06respectively. 115 (76.67%) students were poor sleeper and the prevalence of poor sleep quality was slightly higher among females than males (76.8%) and (74.4%) respectively with P = 0.004. Younger students were about two and half times more prone to have poor sleep quality compared to older participants (OR=2.4; 95% CI: 1.62-3.55). Conclusion: Poor sleep quality is common among our medical students. It established that most medical students have a poor sleep quality, which could be related to their sleep habits. This study highlights a strong need for integrating sleep hygiene education for young students, to improve their sleeping practices and consequent physical and mental health.

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