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

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.