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. 2015 Mar 12:3:e840.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.840. eCollection 2015.

Association of academic stress with sleeping difficulties in medical students of a Pakistani medical school: a cross sectional survey

Ahmed Waqas  1 , Spogmai Khan  1 , Waqar Sharif  1 , Uzma Khalid  1 , Asad Ali  1
Affiliations

Association of academic stress with sleeping difficulties in medical students of a Pakistani medical school: a cross sectional survey

Ahmed Waqas et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Introduction. Medicine is one of the most stressful fields of education because of its highly demanding professional and academic requirements. Psychological stress, anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances are highly prevalent in medical students. Methods. This cross-sectional study was undertaken at the Combined Military Hospital Lahore Medical College and the Institute of Dentistry in Lahore (CMH LMC), Pakistan. Students enrolled in all yearly courses for the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree were included. The questionnaire consisted of four sections: (1) demographics (2) a table listing 34 potential stressors, (3) the 14-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14), and (4) the Pittsburgh Quality of Sleep Index (PSQI). Logistic regression was run to identify associations between group of stressors, gender, year of study, student's background, stress and quality of sleep. Results. Total response rate was 93.9% (263/280 respondents returned the questionnaire). The mean (SD) PSS-14 score was 30 (6.97). Logistic regression analysis showed that cases of high-level stress were associated with year of study and academic-related stressors only. Univariate analysis identified 157 cases with high stress levels (59.7%). The mean (SD) PSQI score was 8.1 (3.12). According to PSQI score, 203/263 respondents (77%) were poor sleepers. Logistic regression showed that mean PSS-14 score was a significant predictor of PSQI score (OR 1.99, P < 0.05). Conclusion. We found a very high prevalence of academic stress and poor sleep quality among medical students. Many medical students reported using sedatives more than once a week. Academic stressors contributed significantly to stress and sleep disorders in medical students.

Keywords: Academic performance; Academic stressors; Medical students; Perceived stress scale; Pittsburgh sleep quality index; Sleep disturbance; Stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

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