Excessive Daytime Sleepiness Among Medical Students – A Cross-Sectional Survey to Study the Risk Factors

Sleep is a condition of the body and mind which typically occurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is inactive, the eyes are closed, the postural muscles are relaxed, and consciousness is practically suspended. Daytime sleepiness, or difficulty in maintaining a desired level of wakefulness, is frequently viewed by the general population as a common experience and predictable consequence of insufficient sleep. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of excessive daytime sleepiness and factors associated with medical students in a private university in Malaysia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among year 1 to year 5 medical students. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0. A minimum sample size of 400 was obtained. The percentage of Excessive day time sleepiness (EDS) among the students was 44% (176 of 400). Association between EDS and other independent variables was seen by the Chi-square test with p-value < 0.05 considered as a significant association. Of the various factors determined, a statistically significant association was found between internet usage and EDS.