Abstract :
Introduction: Students often believe that studying late betters exam results, but studies show that prolonged wakefulness and reduced sleep decrease memory capacity. Researches also have demonstrated that both sleep duration and quality are necessary for memory function. Medical students face high academic stress, leading to reduced sleep, which may reduce cognitive performance. Stress is a key factor influencing sleep quality and therefore is a very important variable. The study was aimed to investigate the impact of perceived stress and sleep quality on everyday memory in first year professional medical students.Materials and Methods: A sample size of 157 first professional medical students in a medical school was considered for a cross-sectional study in central India. Participants completed self-administered questionnaires after providing informed consent. The study used three validated tools: Perceived Stress Scale, Sleep Quality Scale, and the Everyday Memory Questionnaire. The institutional ethics committee granted the ethical approval before conducting this study.Results: Results showed that 35.6% of students sometimes had difficulty falling asleep. Many reported that poor sleep caused irritability and trouble in concentrating. 31% felt their sleep was sometimes enough, while 21.5% rarely or never felt that it was. Stress was prevalent, with 48.3% feeling unable to manage and 81% feeling stressed occasionally. Frequent memory errors, like the need to double-check completed tasks, were reported and related with the high stress and reduced hours of sleep.Conclusion: The results demonstrated a noteworthy connection between perceived stress, everyday memory problems and insufficient sleep quality in medical students. These findings enunciate the need for early interventions focusing on stress reduction strategies to promote students’ psychological health and academic success.
Keyword :
Sleep, Stress, Everyday Memory, First year medical professional students.