Abstract

Background: Sleep is the most important yet least understood function of the brain. It is seen that students usually get lesser duration of sleep, due to academic and social demands. In our study, we are trying to use relatively short-duration tasks, which are software-based and can be easily used in a clinical setting for screening purpose, for the assessment of attention in individuals with poor sleep quality.

Aims and Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the perceived stress levels in students based on the quality of sleep and to compare the attention in students based on the quality of sleep.

Materials and Methods: Eighty-four participants were divided into good and bad sleep quality based on the Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scores and their perceived stress scores were obtained. All of them were subjected to smartphonebased cognitive function testing using color word and word color Stroop test.

Results: Eighty-four subjects were recruited for the study from the Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences, Bidar, of which 34 (40%) were in the good sleep group and 50 (60%) in the bad sleep group. The median PSQI score in the group with bad sleep quality was found to be significantly higher than the median PSQI scores of the group with good sleep. The median word color Stroop score in the good sleep quality was found to be significantly higher than the score of the bad sleep group. Similarly, the median color word Stroop scores were significantly higher in the good sleep group than that of the bad sleep quality group.

Conclusion: Sleep quality seems to increase the levels of perceived stress in students. Sleep affects the attention of the subjects in a negative way.

Key words: Sleep Quality; Stress; Attention; Medical Students