Assessing Sleep Quality and Influencing Factors Among Medical Undergraduates: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

BACKGROUND:  Sleep is a biological process that is essential for life. Sleep quality refers to an individual's overall satisfaction with their sleep experience, encompassing factors such as ease of falling asleep, ability to stay asleep, total sleep duration, and the sense of refreshment upon waking. Undergraduate medical students frequently struggle with good-quality sleep. Poor sleep quality negatively impacts academic performance, behavioural issues, emotional issues, bad emotional status, and also increases the risk of alcohol, smoking habits and psychiatric disorders. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the quality of sleep and to find out its influencing factors among undergraduate medical students. METHODS: An observational survey was carried out at C.U. Shah Medical College, Surendranagar, India between 1(st) June to 31(st) August 2024 among undergraduate medical students. Study participants were selected using convenient sampling technique with their consent and the final sample size was 300. Data was collected by a pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire comprised of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) scale, sociodemographic profile and habitual practices of students through a Google form. Data was analysed with the help of SPSS version 26 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). RESULTS: The study showed that about 34% of study participants had poor quality of sleep. A statistically significant association was found between quality of sleep and sociodemographic variables like phase of studying for Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) (p=0.004) and Body Mass Index (p=0.04). There was a strong statistical association found between perceived stress during the last month and quality of sleep (p<0.000). CONCLUSIONS:  Sleep quality was poor in 34.0% of study participants. BMI, phase of studying MBBS, and perceived stress during the last month were major determinants affecting the quality of sleep among medical students. Undergraduate students should adopt stress management techniques and maintain a healthy BMI to improve sleep quality during their MBBS studies.