Sleep duration and its association with obesity and overweight in medical students: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of sleep deprivation is rising globally as is that of obesity. The association between the two is also gaining much evidence. The medical students may be specifically affected due to decreased sleep duration. Aims and Objectives: The aim is to study the association between decreased sleep duration and obesity by means of body mass index (BMI) as a measure of obesity among the medical students. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study among 199 medical students. The participants reported their sleep duration, and their height and weight were noted. BMI was calculated from data obtained. Students were categorized according to BMI into underweight, normal, overweight, and obese and according to sleep duration into >8 h, 6-8 h, and 25 kg/m2. Of all the obese students, 61.54% were sleeping 8 h per night. On comparison of mean BMIs between the sleep duration groups, the difference was found to be highly significant (P < 0.00001). Conclusion: The present work found significant negative association between short sleep duration and overweight and obesity in medical students. Furthermore, creating awareness among medical students regarding this correlation and adoption of healthy lifestyle including proper sleep, diet, and physical activity are the need of the hour.