Effect of sleepiness on academic performance of medical students

Objectives: To determine the frequency of day time sleepiness among students of Wah Medical College, to ascertain gender difference and relationship between day time sleepiness and academic performance. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Wah Medical College from January to June 2017. A total of 340 medical students was included through simple random sampling technique. A self-administered questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. The sleepiness was measured by using Epworth Sleepiness Scale. Those who scored 0-9 were considered to have normal sleep while who scored 10-15 had mild to moderate sleepiness and with 16 or more had severe sleepiness. The data were analyzed by using SPSS version 19. The Chi-square test was applied to see the difference in sleepiness among male and female students and to establish the relationship between sleepiness and academic performance of students. Results: Out of 340 students, 134 (39%) were male and 206(61%) were female. Out of these,160 (47%) had normal, 157 (46%) had mild to moderate and 23 (7%) had severe sleepiness. Significant association was found between sleepiness and academic performance (p=0.001). No significant difference was found between sleepiness and gender (p=0.787). Conclusion: More than half of Wah Medical College students had problem of sleepiness and they performed less well in academics as compared to the students without trouble of sleepiness. Key words: Academic performance, sleep, students, gender difference.