Association between Quality of Sleep and Academic Performance in Medical Students: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

Background: Medical students are more prone to daytime sleepiness, sleep deprivation and irregular sleep schedules, as they have less free time, longer courses and working hours compared to other professional students. Aim:To assess the quality of sleep and to find out the association between sleep quality and academic performance among medical students.Methodology: This cross sectional study was conducted among 176 medical students. They were subjected to Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire to assess their sleep quality over a one-month period. A PSQI global score of 5 and greater than 5 was considered indicative of poor sleep. Academic performance was assessed from their internal assessment scores conducted during that period. The data was analyzed using the unpaired students 't' test and Pearson's correlation test Results: Our study included 176 students from all the phases of MBBS curriculum. 24 percentage students had poor quality of sleep. In our study, there was no statistically significant difference in the performance of good sleepers (57.94 ±18.06) and poor sleepers (58.80 ±17.37) with a p value of 0.785. Our study results showed a negative correlation between global PSQI scores and assessment scores of the students (r = 0.57 and P =0.449). Conclusion:In our study association between sleep quality and academic performance was not statistically significant. Assessment of sleep quality helps to indentify the students at risk and plan the specific programs to improve the quality of sleep.