SLEEP PATTERNS

Abstract

Background: College students experience a number of sleep problems, which1impact academic performance, health, and mood . University students are exposed to pressuresdue to academic demands. Objectives: To determine the prevalence of sleep disorders amongcollege students and look into their sleep patterns and life style. Design: A cross-sectional study.Material & Method: Sample was comprised of 141 medical and non-medical students. Placeand Period of Study: The study was conducted at University of Lahore and period spanned fromDec 2010 to April 2011. Results: The age ranged 18 to 26, with 42.6 to 57.4 Male-female ratios.Both groups were almost similar in use of sleeping pills (medical: 97.2, non-medical: 82.2%).They differed in percentages for studying academic books, listening MP 3 player and late nightparties/hangouts, wherein medical students outnumbered non-medical students almost by half.Both groups differed in their usual time to sleep, medical students who sleep later than 12 pm washigher (66.2%), compared to 46.6% non-medical. In taking day naps (medical: 70.6%, nonmedical:37.0%), awakening due to noise often (medical: 41.2%, non-medical: 30.1%),nightmares during sleep often (medical: 23.5%, non-medical: 19.5%) and sometimes (medical:44.1%, non-medical: 30.1%), difficulty in falling sleep sometimes (medical: 50.0%, non-medical:32.9%), feel sleepiness in the class often (medical: 45.6%, non-medical: 28.8%), feel tired orsleepiness during the day (medical: 36.7%, non-medical: 23.4%). Both groups also differregarding worry about “sleep disturbance to some extent”. (medical:51.4%, nonmedical:35.6%).Conclusions: Our study found that medical students had more disturbed sleeppatterns than the comparing group including delaying sleep time at night, awakening due tonoise, experiencing nightmares, difficulty in falling sleep, feeling sleepiness in the class andduring the day