Introduction@#
Movement restrictions and changes in
medical education around the world due to the
Coronavirus 2019
pandemic have been sources of stress, which
affect sleep and compound the demands of
medical education . In the
Philippines , stay-at-home orders were implemented in the National
Capital Region on 15 March 2020, and despite various readjustments and re-definitions, remain in effect to date, March 2022. Objectives. This
cross-sectional study aims to determine the
sleep quality and
daytime sleepiness of Filipino
medical students during prolonged stay-at-home orders, to compare them with pre-
pandemic evaluations, and to explore
associations between scores and participant characteristics. @*
Methods @#The
medical student population of a
state -run
university in the City of Manila was included, while those on a leave of absence were excluded. The Epworth
Sleepiness Scale and the Pittsburgh
Sleep Quality Index which
measure excessive daytime sleepiness and
sleep quality , respectively, were disseminated via Google Forms from April to May 2021. @*Results@#Response rate was 87.75% (n=709) with a mean age of 22.9 ± 2.0 years and a 11.09
male -to-
female ratio. Among the
respondents , 41.18% had
excessive daytime sleepiness , and was significantly higher for first-year premedicine
students . Compared to pre-
pandemic scores,
daytime sleepiness decreased during the
pandemic . On the other
hand , 62.34% of the
respondents had poor
sleep quality , with global scores being significantly higher for the first-year pre-
medicine students . Relationships between participants' characteristics and their scores were extremely weak, while a moderately significant correlation existed between global
daytime sleepiness and
sleep quality scores. @*Conclusion@#Both
excessive daytime sleepiness and poor
sleep quality remain prevalent during prolonged stay-athome orders. These reflect the effect of the
pandemic on stress inherent to
medical education , and may be additional facets to be regarded in evaluating the general well-being of
medical students .