Sleeping Disorders among Medical Students in Saudi Arabia; in Relation to Anti-Insomnia Medications

AlQahtani, Muath S.; Alkhaldi, Talal M.; Al-Sultan, Abdullah Mutib; Bin Shihah, Abdulelah S.; Aleid, Ahmed Saad; Alzahrani, Ziyad Khater; Alfaryan, Khalid Hisham

doi:10.12816/0042561

Sleeping Disorders among Medical Students in Saudi Arabia; in Relation to Anti-Insomnia Medications

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

College of Medicine, Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

10.12816/0042561

Abstract

Background: due to their demanding lifestyle, sleep deprivation is common amongst the medical students. A study, which followed 1,007 young adults at a health maintenance organization for 3.5 years, found that a history of insomnia predicted new-onset depression, also other psychiatric disorders. Another study showed that sleeping disorders and insomnia are negatively associated with academic performance in medical students in Saudi Arabia. The relationship between sleeping disorders among medical students in Saudi Arabia; about anti-insomnia medications is insufficiently addressed in the literature. This study aimed to assess the relationship between sleep habits and sleep duration with academic performance in the medical students. Objectives: this study aimed to determine sleep pattern disorders among medical students, as well as, the use of anti-insomnia medications and alsoto define the relation regarding the academic performance among the sample medical students in Saudi Arabia.
Methods: this is a cross-sectional study which was conducted among the medical students at three different medical schools, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from May 2014 to December 2014.. A self-administrated randomized questionnaire was developed and designed in the Arabic language in the form of multiple choices and short answers, concerning age, gender, educational level, grade point average GPA, financial status, total sleep hours per day, mid-day naps duration, quality and latency of sleep and using of anti-insomnia medications. Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was also involved in the questionnaire. Results: out of 276 received questionnaires, 237 questionnaires were completed. Out of those 237 subjects, 92 subjects were female students (38.7%), and 145 were male students (60.9%). The mean age was 22 ±2.37. Regarding GPA, 122 participants got below average GPA, 28 participants got average GPA, 62 participants got an average GPA, while 25 participants got an excellent GPA (51.3%, 11.8%, 26.1%,10.5% respectively). 127 of the participants were used medications to help them to sleep, and 9.7% used it occasionally, whereas 110 of the participants did not use any medication. Out of 127 participants who used the medications, 92.5% of them agreed that medications they took were helpful and effective.Conclusion: this study showed a significant relationship between the use of anti-insomnia medications and the academic performance of medical students, further committee and education should be established by the universities and faculties to enhance the student’s awareness to the issue of the chronic use of anti-insomnia medications at first and to apply a perfectly healthy environment with less stress and condensed classes and exams.

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