Sleep Patterns and Predictors of Poor Sleep Quality among Medical Students in King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Sleep problems and poor sleep quality are important issues for medical students. This study aimed to investigate the sleep patterns, measure the prevalence of poor sleep quality, and identify the predictors of poor sleep among medical students in King Khalid University (KKU), Saudi Arabia.Methods: This cross-sectional study enrolled 318 medical students during OctoberNovember, 2015. Participants were selected by convenience sampling and data were collected using self-administered questionnaires to obtain information regarding socio-demographic variables and indicators of sleep quality.Results: The overall mean sleep quality score was 6.79 with a standard deviation of 3.06. Poor sleep quality was reported by 74.2% students. Significantly high mean sleep quality scores (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index) were observed for students with very poor subjective sleep quality (mean = 10.50, SD = 2.58), least sleep efficiency (mean = 11.21, SD = 2.23), shorter sleep duration (mean = 7.83, SD = 2.88), sleep onset latency more than 30 minutes (mean = 7.82, SD = 2.53), sleeping after midnight (mean = 7.53, SD = 2.95), and use of sleep aiding medication (mean = 8.78, SD = 3.5). Significant differences were observed between good sleepers and poor sleepers regarding these sleep characteristics. Poor sleep was predicted by sleep behaviours such as going to sleep after midnight (AOR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.20, 3.94) and sleep duration of less than seven hours (AOR = 7.49, 95% CI: 4.24, 13.22).Conclusion: Medical students of KKU have poor sleep quality. Longer sleep latency, going to sleep after midnight, and shorter sleep duration are important problems in this group.

Sleep Disturbances Rate among Medical and Allied Health Professions Students in Iran: Implications from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Literature

“…Stratifying according to ethnicity revealed that minority students were more likely to report lower levels of sleep adequacy and sleep quantity and higher levels of sleep somnolence in a statistically significant way when compared with their Caucasian counterparts [41]. An even higher percentage was computed among students in Saudi Arabia, where poor sleep quality was reported by 74.2% of the study participants [42]. Percentages ranging from 58% to 77.78% were reported in other surveys [43][44][45].…”

Prevalence of sleep disturbances in Chinese university students: a comprehensive meta‐analysis

“…The associations between gender and sleep disturbances have been controversial. For example, female students had a higher prevalence of sleep disturbances compared with male students in Peru and Pakistan (Sanchez et al ., ; Surani et al ., ), but the result was the opposite in Iran and Lebanon (Siddiqui et al ., ; Yazdi et al ., ), while no significant gender difference was found in the USA (Buboltz et al ., ). In this study, medical students (25.5%) were more vulnerable to sleep disturbances than non‐medical students (17.3%), which is consistent with previous findings (Shad et al ., ).…”

“…Previous studies found variable rates of sleep disturbances in this population. The prevalence of sleep disturbances ranges from 3.0 to 74.2% worldwide, for instance, 3.0% in Thailand (Mohammadbeigi et al ., ), 9.8% in Lebanon (Younes et al ., ), 22.5% in the USA (Gress et al ., ), 33.3% in Japan (Supartini et al ., ), 74.2% in Saudi Arabia (Siddiqui et al ., ), 51.8% in Chile (Velez et al ., ), and 61.7% in Iran (Mohammadbeigi et al ., ). Apart from different sampling methods and geographic locations, the use of different instruments, such as the PSQI (Mohammadbeigi et al ., ), the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI; Gress et al ., ) and non‐quantitative measures (Peltzer and Pengpid, ) could account for such variation in prevalence.…”

Impact of Twitter and WhatsApp on Sleep Quality among Medical Students in King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia

“…In King Saud College of Medicine, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Abdulghani et al (2012) reported that 36.6% of medical students had poor sleep quality. Moreover, in King Khalid College of Medicine, Abha, Saudi Arabia, Siddiqui et al (2016) reported that poor sleep quality was claimed by 74.2% of medical students.…”