The correlation of screen time with sleep quality: A cross-sectional study on undergraduate medical students

Abstract

Background: Continuous and long-term exposure to the screens of electronic devices, especially smartphones, cell phones, and tablets, is associated with poor quality of sleep. Aim and Objectives: The study was undertaken to correlate screen time exposure and the quality of sleep in undergraduate medical students and to find out the effects of increased screen time exposure on the health of students. Materials and Methods: The study was carried out on 200 undergraduate medical students at Smt. B. K. Shah Medical Institute and Research Centre, Piparia, Vadodara, Gujarat with the help of an online pre-validated questionnaire constructed on Google Form after obtaining ethical approval. The questionnaire was comprised demographic profiles, screen time exposure, and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) statements. Data were entered into an Microsoft Excel sheet. For the descriptive statistical part, means, standard deviations, and frequency tables were used. A Chi-square test was applied to detect the strength of the association. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The prevalence of increased screen time among the study population was found 79%. The prevalence of PSQI scores >5 observed in the present study was 73%. There was a significant association observed between increased screen time exposure and PSQI score >5. Conclusion: Increased screen time was significantly associated with poor sleep quality. The most common effect of increased screen time exposure among students found was a headache.