Excessive Daytime Sleepiness among First to Fourth Year Undergraduate Students of a Medical College in Nepal: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: Excessive Daytime Sleepiness is a significant health problem among medical students worldwide which can impair their cognitive and academic performances. Our study aims to determine the prevalence of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness among the first to fourth year undergraduate students of the Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences-College of Medicine. METHODS: Following the ethical approval from the Institutional Review Committee with registration no. 317, a descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the first to fourth year medical students of the Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences-College of Medicine from 4(th) to 10(th) August 2020. Two hundred and thirty-two students were selected for the study using the stratified random sampling technique. Epworth Sleepiness Scale was used to obtain data on daytime sleepiness among the study participants. The data were entered into Google spreadsheets and later analyzed. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with the frequency and proportion for binary data. RESULTS: The prevalence of Excessive Daytime Sleepiness among the first to fourth year undergraduate students of the Nepalese Army Institute of Health Sciences-College of Medicine is found to be 67 (31.02%) at 95% Confidence Interval (24.85-37.19). It was found to be highly prevalent among the fourth year undergraduate medical students 20 (35.09%) and least prevalent among the first year students 13 (26.00%). Excessive Daytime Sleepiness was found to be slightly higher among females 23 (34.85%) than males 44 (29.33%). CONCLUSIONS: Excessive Daytime Sleepinessis highly prevalent among medical students in our study as suggested by various international studies.