A Cross Sectional Study on Sleep Quality among Medical Students and Its Association with Their Academic Performance and Smart Phone Use in a Private Medical College in Kerala

Abstract

 Introduction and Objectives: Good quality sleep is essential for good health and well-being. However, lifestyle and environmental factors are increasingly causing difculties in sleeping patterns of individuals. The main effects of sleep deprivation include physical effects like sleepiness, fatigue, hypertension and cognitive impairments like deterioration of performance, attention, motivation, diminishment of concentration and intellectual capacity. Also inadequate sleep increases the likelihood of accidents at work and during driving. Medical education is regarded as one of the most demanding areas of professional education but it is also linked with stress related to studies and postings .It is expected that they are prone to numerous forms of sleep problems. It has also been found that using mobile phones highly linked to sleep-related difculties in medical students .Due to the demanding nature of medical school and the possible consequences of poor sleep on outcomes in academics, clinical care and mental health, sleep quality is a crucial concern for medical students. This study aims to assess the sleep quality among medical students using PSQI (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) Score and to identify the factors associated with sleep quality. Materials and Methods: The study was a cross sectional study conducted from October 20th to November 20th 2023 among 180 randomly selected medical students of 2019, 2020 and 2021 batches of Mount Zion Medical College. Sleep quality and factors affecting their sleep was assessed using PSQI (Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index) Score and SAS-SV (Smart phone Addiction Scale-Short Version) questionnaire. Academic performance of each student was assessed based on the percentage of their last university examination. Results: 77.8% of the study population had normal sleep quality whereas 22.2% had sleep disturbances according to PSQI score.Ascore more than 5 according to PSQI score was taken as considerable sleep disturbance. PSQI global score range between 0 to 21.Higher the PSQI score worse the sleep quality.83.3% of students showed smart phone addiction whereas 16.7 % of study participants had no considerable smart phone addiction according to SAS-SV score.Ascore more than 15 was considered as problematic smart phone use or addiction to smart phone use. SAS-SV score ranges between 0 and 60.The study showed signicant association for sleep quality with academic performance and smart phone addiction. Conclusion: Sleep Quality issues in terms of sleep duration, day time dysfunction and sleep disturbances were common among medical students. Students who performed well in their academics had good sleep quality pattern. Among those with no considerable smart phone addiction majority had good sleep quality. Thus good sleep quality was found to be associated with better academic performance and balanced smart phone use.