Prevalence and pattern of sleep disorder among final year medical students in a teaching hospital in sub-Saharan Africa

Background: Sleep is a very important physiologic process which is necessary to maintain a state of well-being. Apart from causing insomnia and hypersomnolence, sleep disorder has been shown to be associated with impairment of performance, vigilance, attention, concentration, and memory. Methods: This was a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based, observational study that was conducted from September to November 2017 on final year medical students of the University of Jos, Plateau State, North Central Nigeria. Results: One hundred and fifty-eight questionnaires were distributed with a total of 141 respondents. Their ages ranged from 23 to 46 years with a mean of 27.0 ±2.9 years. Forty-seven (33.3%) were females and 94 (66.7%) males giving a ratio of 1: 2. The female respondents had a mean age of 25.9 ±1.4 years compared to the male respondents 27.5 ±3.3 years. Sixty-four (48.2%) of the students had sleep disorder with narcolepsy as the commonest in over a quarter of respondents. Significant predictors of sleep disorders were male sex and obesity. Conclusion: Sleep disorder is common in final year medical students. There is a need to identify this disorder in these students in order to institute measures that will ameliorate its health consequences in these future healthcare leaders in sub-Saharan Africa.