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Assessment of Sleep Quality and its Relationship to Social Media Use Among Medical Students

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Abstract

Study Objectives

This study attempted to assess sleep quality among medical students and examine the relationship between social network use and sleep quality.

Methods

Descriptive cross-sectional study, enrolling medical students of King Abdulaziz University and Batterjee Medical College. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to assess sleep quality.

Results

Of the 702 medical students who responded to our survey (410 females and 292 males), more than 66% suffered from poor sleep quality. Approximately 92.3% of the surveyed students used electronic devices before they fell asleep, and 88.4% used these devices for social networking purposes. Female students were found to suffer more than male students, and they also reported spending more time on social networking sites before sleeping (p = .006).

Conclusion

This study suggests that students who reported poor sleep spent an average of 64.38 min on social networking sites before sleeping; this duration was negatively associated with medical students’ sleep quality.

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Abbreviations

KAU:

King Abdulaziz University

PSQI:

Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index

SD:

standard deviation

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Acknowledgments

Our sincere thanks to Dr. Seraj Wali, Associate Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, for guiding us throughout this research. Our gratitude also goes to all of our colleges at King Abdulaziz University and Batterjee Medical College who participated in completing our research questionnaire.

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Correspondence to Abdulaziz Alsulami.

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Ethical approval was obtained from the Committee of Ethics and Research at King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Medicine.

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We affirm that the article is original, is not under consideration by another journal, and has not been published. No actual or potential financial or other conflict of interest exists relating to the submitted manuscript. The author transfers copyright in the event the work is published.

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Alsulami, A., Bakhsh, D., Baik, M. et al. Assessment of Sleep Quality and its Relationship to Social Media Use Among Medical Students. Med.Sci.Educ. 29, 157–161 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-018-00650-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-018-00650-9

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