Prevalence of Insomnia among university students in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of insomnia among three United Arab Emirates (UAE) university students, of different majors; namely, Ajman University, University of Sharjah and the American University of Sharjah from March 2021 to June 2021, through comparing components of everyday behavioral activities with their sleep patterns and overall sleep quality. The questionnaire was distributed in two forms; online via the Planet Survey Website and paper-based. Three hundred and eighty out of four hundred, with 95% response rate, UAE university students, 48.7% males and 51.3% females, average aged 24 years completed a questionnaire on insomnia that includes sociodemographic, the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and lifestyle details. Most of the participants were Muslims (95.5%), 74.5% of them were Arabs, 94.3% were singles and 91.6% were full-time students. The resultant prevalence of insomnia among the students was assessed by three criteria. These are, time to fall asleep, quality of sleep and respondents with and without problem sleeping. With respect to time to fall asleep, 51.8% of respondents needs ≥ 30 minutes to fall asleep, 29.2% of them were females and 22.6% males. Regarding quality of sleep, both genders scored almost identical figures of 19.5% and 2% for fairly and bad quality of sleep respectively. With respect to problem sleeping, 37.9% of respondents were having problem sleeping, 22.4% of them females and 15.5% males. Our results identified some significant relations between some sleep disorders and behavior or diseases. Nightmares had a significant relation with listening to rap music (p<0.031), play with cell phone or tablet before sleeping (p <0.023), drinking tea and coffee (p<0.004), energy drinks (p<0.034) take a medicine to promote sleeping (p <0.017), as well as allergic rhinitis (p<0.009). Whereas falling experience had a significant relation with listening to pop music (p<0.018), play with cell phone or tablet before sleeping (p<0.009) and diseases like hypothyroidism (p<0.009) and diabetes (p<0.009). On the other hand, spinning room experience had a significant relation with cardiac diseases (p<0.019), take a medicine to promote sleeping (p<0.003), hyperthyroidism (p <0.009) and listening to rap music (p<0.015). The results also identified that sleep-walk had a significant relation with listening to rock music (p<0.050), and rap music (p< 0.035) before bed. Whereas sleep-talk had a significant relation with asthma (p<0.048) and hypertension (p< 0.034). This study provides preliminary data on sleep quality and risk factors for insomnia, which may be used to guide sleep hygiene promotion and intervention among university students.