A Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Based Study to Evaluate Subjective Sleep Quality among Undergraduate Students in India

Abstract

Irregular sleep patterns are often a major hindrance in the life of undergraduate students, fueled by the undulating lifestyle anomalies and new vulnerabilities that come with college life. Insomnia, slapdash sleep cycles, and daytime dysfunction may affect both physical as well as mental well-being of individuals. India has the largest share of young adults in the world, which also makes it a likely epicenter for increasing sleep disorders. Students are often exposed to a significantly high level of academic burden and turn to options such as pulling all-nighters that further propel these issues. Most students realize the effects of a bad sleep schedule but nonetheless sacrifice it for the promise of better grades ignoring the double-edged sword. This study assesses the association of self-rated subjective sleep quality with habits prevalent among undergraduate students in India and its effect on their academic performance. Based on a modified PSQI questionnaire, the participants’ sleep quality was scored and a large majority of students showed an overall moderately good sleep quality. Insufficient sleep was seen to have an adverse effect on facial appearance, work productivity and enthusiasm for daily chores, among students. Unlike previous reports, the current dataset did not reveal any significant impact of sleep quality on the academic performance of the students. We also analyzed the most prevalent factors that were responsible for disruption of sleep in college goers and probed the major reasons for nighttime phone usage, which revealed social media to be a major contributor. Although the negative impact of sleep deprivation on academic performance has been studied earlier, any differential impact of stream has not been addressed thoroughly. Unlike the common belief of disparity induced due to stream-based academic pressure, our survey analysis showed insignificant contribution of stream leading to differences in sleep quality of students. Although participants’ reported mild disruption in sleep, it was observed across all streams and it did not seem to have an immediate effect on overall sleep quality of undergraduate students.