Abstract :
Introduction: Obesity and its associated risks are a leading public health concern. Sleep deprivation is
speculated to boost appetite. Medical students are prone to sleep deprivation.
Objective: a): To study Sleep duration & pattern of study population using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality
Index (PSQI). b): To correlate between Body Mass Index (BMI) and Sleep duration & pattern among study
population.
Materials and Methods: Medicals students (n=247; males=133 & females=114) of age group 18-
23years were properly examined to exclude those suffering from any major diseases, psychiatric problems,
alcoholics or sleep medication. Height & weight were examined to calculate BMI and it was graded
according to ICMR guidelines. Sleep quality & duration was assessed by a self-report questionnaire, PSQI.
Pearson’s correlation was used to find the association among parameters.
Results: 41.3%(102) had overweight BMI of 23; 38.1%(94) had poor sleep quality with PSQI score >5
and 43.3%(107) are sleep deprived with sleep duration 5-6 hours. Analysis showed highly significant
negative correlation bet ween BMI & sleep duration with ‘p’ value positive correlation between BMI & PSQI score with ‘p’ value Conclusions: It was found that with increase in BMI there is decrease in sleep duration as well as reduction
in sleep quality which again leads to obesity as a vicious cycle. Hence proper education about sleep and life
style modification is needed to medical students to prevent obesity and its associated comorbidities among
them.
Keyword :
Sleep duration, Sleep quality, BMI, PSQI, Medical students.