Comparison of quality of sleep between medical and non-medical undergraduate Pakistani students.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the quality of sleep between medical and non-medical undergraduate students.

METHODS: The comparative cross-sectional study was conducted from March to May 2017 at different universities and colleges of Rawalpindi/Islamabad cities in Pakistan. Pittsburgh sleep quality index questionnaire was distributed among undergraduate students. Comparison was made between the global and component scores of medical and non-medical students. Excel 2013 was used for data analysis.

RESULTS: Of the 606 students approached, 520(85.8%) responded. Among them, 266(51.1%) were medical students and 254(48.9%) were non-medical. Also, 327(62.9%) were females and 193(37.1%) males. Overall mean age of the subjects was 20.25±1.54 years. Among the medical students, 179(67.3%) and among the non-medical 128(50.4%) subjects were classified as poor sleepers with mean score of 6.386 ± 2.923. The scores were significantly higher among medical students, indicating poorer sleep quality and were higher still among female medical students (p<0.05). However, no gender difference was found among non-medical students.

CONCLUSIONS: A considerable proportion of Pakistani undergraduate students have disturbed sleep patterns that tend to deteriorate further among medical students.