A comparative study of sleep quality in different phases of the medical course: A study from Haryana (North India)

BACKGROUND: Inadequate sleep quality is a crucial problem in today's hectic lifestyle. Sleep is known to facilitate cognitive skills, aid memory, and is important for physical, emotional and intellectual health. OBJECTIVES: To determine the sleep quality of the medical undergraduate students and to explore differences in various phases of medical curriculum. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Sleep quality was assessed in 400 medical students in various phases of the medical course using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Chi square test was used for comparisons of the all seven components of PSQI and sleep quality for different study year, whereas ANOVA was used for comparison of the components and global score. RESULTS: Of the total, 25.3% of the participants classified their sleep quality as either very or fairly bad, and 31.1% reported taking more than 30 min to fall asleep. The average hours slept per night was 7.1 ± 1.21. Of the total, 8.4% of the participants reported using sleep medication at least once a week. Subjective sleep quality and sleep duration were found to be significantly different among the four groups. CONCLUSION: Poor subjective sleep quality was high for students in all class years of the undergraduate medical course. The comparison across the various phases of the course showed that first years reported worse sleep quality than did those in other class years.