Sleep pattern and insomnia among medical students

Abstract

Earlier literature on the sleep patterns of students has suggested that these individuals often have erratic sleep patterns and around 8–9 % suffer from insomnia. Some of the literature on nonmedical university students reported that sleep patterns are subject to gender bias. However, only few reports examining sleep patterns among medical students are available. Moreover, dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep (DBAS) among medical students have never been examined. What are the sleep patterns of medical students? Are these affected by gender? What is the prevalence of clinical insomnia? How prevalent are DBAS among medical students and does gender effect these? Do DBAS influence the sleep patterns? For this study, first-, second- and third-year medical students were approached and requested to participate. Among 300 students, 200 agreed to participate and were included. A self-designed questionnaire for collecting demographic data and information on sleep patterns—both on weekdays and at weekends—was distributed. Participating students were also encouraged to provide information regarding substance use, insomnia and family history of sleep disturbances. Dysfunctional beliefs and attitudes about sleep (DBAS) were examined using the DBAS-16 questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were calculated. Chi-square was used to compare proportions and the independent sample t-test was used to compare means between two groups. Average age of the subjects was 19.8 ± 1.3 years. On weekdays, 70 % of subjects went to bed between 11 pm to 1.30 am. Usual waketime on weekdays was between 6 am and 7 am (69 %). At weekends, bedtime and waketime were delayed. In addition, an increase in total sleep time by 1.2 hours was observed at weekends (P < 0.001). Clinical insomnia could be diagnosed in 5 % of subjects. Gender did not affect sleep patterns or DBAS score. Of the included students, 86.6 % had dysfunctional beliefs. A discrepancy was observed between the DBAS-16 scores and sleep practices. We found that medical students had delayed-type sleep patterns and 5 % suffered from clinically significant insomnia. Students’ sleep patterns remained unaffected by gender and DBAS, despite the fact that DBAS are common among these individuals.