Sleep patterns of medical students; their relationship with academic performance: a cross sectional survey

ABSTRACT

To identify sleep patterns of medical students and determine the relationship between sleep habits and academic performance. Human beings adopt three different sleeping patterns; monophasic, biphasic and polyphasic. Sleep allows synaptic molding to return by developing faster memory union. When such memory processing is not present, memory keeping is reduced which can have an adverse effect on the academic performance of students. Professional education in the field of medicine requires learning a greater amount and variety of syllabi to practice as a satisfactory medical graduate. Among medical students, the burden of the extensive curriculum often results in the development of non-recuperative sleeping patterns, which can, in turn, affect their overall academic performance. This study strives to deduce the sleeping patterns of students and the connection between those sleeping patterns and academic performance. A cross-sectional questionnaire based survey. Jinnah Medical and Dental College, Karachi. 2013. Sleep patterns of 347 medical students from year 1 -4. The results of the midterm examinations were cross-tabulated with the sleep patterns to determine the relationship between them. Our study showed that out of 347 medical students, 38.9% [n=135] had monophasic, 46.7% [n = 162] had biphasic and 14.4% [n=50] had a polyphasic sleep pattern. 67.4% of monophasics, 87.0% of biphasics and 66.0% of polyphasics passed their midterm examination. Biphasic students performed the best in their midterm examinations. This is in agreement with scientific proof that sleeping in two phases matches the body's instinctive circadian rhythm, hormonal regulation and memory creation. These two phases are sleeping once at night and having one shorter period during the day. Professional colleges should advise and educate students in order to encourage them to acquire adequate sleep through appropriate sleeping patterns by which they may support their academic learning