Sleep quality among medical students of Karachi, Pakistan

Objective: To characterise sleep quality and assess degree of daytime sleepiness among medical students of Karachi. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted between August and December 2013 and subjects were recruited from five haphazardly selected medical colleges in Karachi. A convenience sample of medical students underwent two validated self-administered questionnaires i.e. Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Epworth Sleepiness Scale. SPSS 17 was used for statistical analysis. Results: Of the 650 students approached, 504(77.5%) subjects completely filled out the questionnaires. Of them, 300(59.5%)were females and 204(40.5%)weremales. Overallmean agewas 20±1.4 years. Of them, 199(39.5%)were classified as Poor Sleepers. Poor sleep quality was associated with female gender (p 0.05), excessive daytime sleepiness (p 0.05), total hours slept (p 0.001) and sleep disturbances (p 0.001). Bed-timing analysis showed 365(72%) students went to bed after midnight. Conclusion: Sleep quality among Pakistani medical students was significantly poor. Efforts must be directed towards proper sleep hygiene education.