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Abstract

Background: Sleep is an important physiological process, which directly affects the concentration, memory, and learning efficiency. Lack of sleep is especially prone to medical students as they spend long hours studying, working in the clinic, and are stressed.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the influence of sleeping patterns on academic performance among medical students at the University College of Medicine and dentistry (UCMD), Lahore.
Methods: The present study is a descriptive cross-sectional study that will be carried out at UCMD between June 2024 and March 2025 by enrolling 100 MBBS students using stratified random sampling. The questions were structured into a questionnaire that included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) to assess the quality, duration, and daytime sleepiness of sleep. Latest semester Grade Point Average (GPA) was used to measure academic performance. The data were compared with Pearson correlation and chi-square tests with the help of SPSS v26; p less than 0.05 was considered to be significant.
Results: The average age of the participants was 21.5 1.9 years; 60 were the female participants. Sixty six percent of students reported poor sleep quality (PSQI > 5), and 64% slept less than six hours per night. The mean GPA was 3.18 ± 0.42. Students who slept 7 hours and above achieved much higher GPAs (3.42 ± 0.31) as compared to those who slept less than 6 hours (3.05 ± 0.36, p < 0.01). There was a positive association between the duration of sleep and GPA (r = 0.48, p < 0.01).
Conclusion: Lack of proper sleep and insufficient sleep quality have a significant negative effect on academic performance. Regular sleep patterns and good sleep hygiene can be encouraged to boost the efficiency of medical student learning and general academic performance.