Quality of Sleep and Academic Performance among Medical University Students

Objective: To assess the effect of sleep quality on academic performance of medical university students. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: King Edward Medical University, Lahore, from December 2017 to April 2018. Methodology: Second to final year Medical and Allied Health Sciences students filled out questionnaires that comprised of three major components. With the help of questionnaire, demographic data about the subjects along with academic scores were collected. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Epworth Sleeping Scale (ESS) were used to collect the data. Qualitative variables are represented as frequencies and percentages; while, quantitative variables are reported as mean along with standard deviation +/- S.D. Chi-square and was applied for statistical significance, and p-value <0.05 was considered. Results: A total of 810 students, including both MBBS and Allied Health Sciences (AHS), filled out the questionnaire. Among those, 564 (69.6%) were females and 246 (30.4%) were males. Overall, mean age was 21.35 +/- 1.51 years. Of the total, 418 (51.6%) were from MBBS programme and 392 (48.4%) were from AHS. No significant relationship was found between PSQI and academic scores. However, academic scores had a strong association with ESS scores. Conclusion: Although the majority of the studied students had poor sleep; but its effect on academic scores was not significant.