Background: Sleep is an important part of human physiology. Sleep disorders are common in medical students which may affect their cognitive functions and academic performance.
Methods: The study took place at Taibah University in 2019. A designed questionnaire was performed by the co-authors that measured sociodemographic status, medical or psychiatric diseases, and grade point average (GPA). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index was used to assess sleep quality. Statistical Package of Social Science version 26 was used for data analysis.
Results: The sample size was 567 students. After excluding the students who refused to participate or did not respond, 401 students were included in the final analysis. 59.6% of the participants were females and 40.4% were males. 34% were in their third year, 29% in their fourth year, 23% in their fifth year and 14% in their sixth year. 96.5% were single. The majority were healthy: only 10% have medical diseases and 5.7% have psychiatric diseases. 41.1% had a GPA of 5 to 4.5, 40.1% between 4.5 and 4, 14.2% between 4 and 3.5, and 4.5% below 3.5. A significant relation was detected between sleep quality and academic performance. The poorer the students sleep quality, the lower their GPA.
Conclusion: There is a significant relation between sleep quality and academic performance, and between sleep quality and having a poor nights sleep before examinations. No significant relation was found between sleep quality and sociodemographic factors, medical or psychiatric diseases, caffeine consumption, exercise frequency or cell phone use before sleep.
Key words: Sleep quality, PSQI, medical students, academic performance.
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