Sleep quality and sleep hygiene in preclinical medical students of tertiary care center amidst COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional observational study.

Objectives: Due to the long-lasting pandemic measures, such as lockdown and stay-at-home orders, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on higher education. In this study, we aimed to determine sleep quality, excessive daytime sleepiness, and sleep hygiene, and their association with anxiety, and their correlation in preclinical medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: We included 101 medical students, aged between 17-20 years of both sex from a tertiary care medical institute. Standard questionnaires were used to assess sleep quality, sleep hygiene, daytime sleepiness, and anxiety among medical students. Results: Fifty-one percent of the medical students had good sleep quality, but 35% had borderline poor sleep quality, and 13% had poor sleep quality during the lockdown. Six percent of medical students had alarmingly high daytime sleepiness. The total Adolescent Sleep Hygiene Scale (ASHS) score was grouped into poor sleep hygiene (ASHS score ≤ 3.8) and good sleep hygiene (ASHS score ≥ 4.9). Overall, sleep hygiene of medical students was poor due to behavioral arousal and bedtime routine factors, and the scores for anxiety and sleep hygiene were significantly negatively correlated, whereas daytime sleepiness showed a significant positive correlation. Conclusion: Our study revealed a high prevalence of poor sleep quality among medical students during the lockdown. Poor sleep hygiene is an eye-opener for the mostly ignored aspect of altered sleep patterns.

Motor conduction parameters in recently diagnosed and untreated hypothyroidism.

BACKGROUND: The severity of neuromuscular symptoms and signs in hypothyroidism is known to be related to the duration and degree of hormone deficiency. PURPOSE: The present study was aimed to assess whether recently diagnosed and untreated hypothyroidism affects peripheral nervous system. METHODS: The study included a total of 120 female subjects with age ranging from 20 to 45 years. The motor nerve conduction parameters viz. Distal latency (DL), amplitude of compound muscle action potential (CMAP) and motor nerve conduction velocity (MNCV) were recorded bilaterally in median, ulnar and posterior tibial nerves using standard protocols and settings. RESULTS: The observations revealed significantly prolonged distal motor latencies, reduced CMAP amplitudes and slowed MNCV in the peripheral nerves in hypothyroid. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that the alteration in motor conduction parameters in recently diagnosed and untreated hypothyroidism might be due to various functional and structural changes in peripheral nerves associated with deficiency of thyroid hormones.