The association of excessive daytime sleepiness with psychological distress among Saudi medical students

Abstract

Background: Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a significant problem especially among medical students, which is affecting negatively the quality of their lives. We aimed to assess the prevalence of this issue and encourage healthy and adequate sleep to improve the academic performance of medical students. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) has been used in this study. Methods: This cross-sectional study targeted medical students and interns from different universities in Saudi Arabia. The survey included three parts: socio-demographic data, the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), and ESS. The data were collected from July to August 2021. A total of 1,295 participants were included in the study. Results: On the ESS, (62.69%) of the students had a normal range of sleepiness with (10.88%) having severe sleepiness. While on the K10 test, (70.19%) had no psychological distress, and only (5.5%) of the students had very high psychological distress. A higher score on the ESS is correlated to a higher score on the K10 test. The association between the level of distress and EDS is significant (p < 0.05). Both scales had found to be significantly associated with Grade Point Average (GPA) (p < 0.05). Higher scores on the ESS and K10 test are correlated with lower GPAs. Conclusion: There are lot of positive points regarding the results of the study, but still there is a negative point and the need for an intervention and action.