A Cross-Sectional study to assess the quality of sleep and level of stress among first year medical students in a private medical college in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Stress is defined as the body's nonspecific response or reaction to demands made on it, or to disturbing events in the environment. This present study was done to assess the quality of sleep and level of stress among first year medical students in a private medical college.

This study was a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in Saveetha Medical College among 150 first year MBBS students. Data was collected using a self-administrated, structured, validated questionnaire containing-a. Socio-demographic details, b. Athens Insomniac Scale (AIS) 8 items, c. Perceived Stress Scale 4 items (PSS-IV). Data was analysed using SPSS version 16 software.

Among 150 students, 143 participated in the study. The students were of the age group 17–20 years with mean age of 18.06 years [SD = 0.734]. According to AIS, it was found that 43 (30.1%) students had poor quality of sleep. According to PSS-IV, it was found that 15 (10.5%) students had severe levels of stress; while a majority of the students 109 (76.2%) had mild to moderate levels of stress. It was found that those with stress had an eight times higher chance of having poor quality of sleep. [p = 0.015] [95% CI = 1.60–39.96].

The coping strategies for eliminating stress among the first year medical students such as implementation of the foundation course, relaxation techniques like meditation, yoga and involvement in physical activities like outdoor sports are necessary for promoting healthy life.