Sleep hygiene awareness: Its relation to sleep quality among medical students in King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Sleep hygiene (SH) is considered to be an effective method to treat sleep disturbances, especially among adolescents and young adults. This study aimed to find out the relationship of SH awareness and its importance in overall sleep quality among medical students and to assess the prevalence of sleep disturbance among them. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in the College of Medicine, King Saud University during the period between April and July 2016. A total of 225 students participated in this study and were recruited by a convenience sampling method. Two validated questionnaires were used, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to assess sleep quality and the Sleep Beliefs Scale (SBS) to assess the awareness of students about SH. Data were entered into, and analyzed by SPSS Version 20. RESULTS: Overall, more than half of the participants, 113 (56.5%), had a poor sleep quality. Sixty one (30.5%) students got excellent score in SH awareness and the rest of the participants (n = 139; 69.5%) scored poor/intermediate. Thirty-five (57.4%) poor sleepers and 42.6% of good sleepers scored excellent in SH awareness. CONCLUSION: This study showed a higher prevalence of sleep disturbance among medical students and no significant correlation between SH awareness and good sleep quality, which means that SH awareness may not necessarily ensure a good sleep quality.