Sleep quality among undergraduate medical students in Rwanda: A comparative study

Abstract Background Good sleep quality is critical to health and wellbeing. However, due to a hectic modern world, sleep is ignored thus poor sleep quality remains one of the endemics affecting medical students than the general population. Regrettably, little has been studied about this alarming issue in Rwanda. Therefore, this study determined the sleep quality of undergraduate medical students in Rwanda and explored existing differences in sleep quality across all classes. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among 290 undergraduate medical students who were randomly recruited countrywide from 1st November 2021 to 1st March 2022.The questionnaire was self-administered with 2 sections: socio-demographic characteristics and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Chisquare test was used to compare components of sleep quality while ANOVA was used to test the difference across all classes. Results Of the 290 respondents,167 (58%) and 123(42%) were male and female respectively. Subjective sleep quality of 102(85%) in fourth year was reported fairly good to very good. Falling asleep took the majority in this class 30 minutes or less, 106(88.4%). Sleeping duration was 5–6 hours per night in most las year students, 44(75.9%). The use of medication to fall asleep was mostly observed among first year students ,3(11%). The habitual sleep efficiency was below 65% in the majority from last year 53(91.4%). There was mild to moderate sleep disturbances reported in most fourth-year students ,106(88.3%) while 38(86.7%) third year students reported daytime dysfunctions. The overall PSQI was > 5 among 231(80%) indicating poor sleep quality and it was particularly poorer among final year students, 50(86.2%) had PSQI > 5.The subjective sleep quality, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, and daytime dysfunction were significant across classes ((F = 3.347, p-value = 0.001), (F = 2.196, p-value = 0.007), (F = 10.2, p-value = < 0.001), (F = 3.604, p-value = 0.007)) respectively. Conclusions The prevalence of poor sleep quality among medical students in Rwanda is high. The issue is even worse among final year medical students who presented poorest sleep quality. Two sleep components including habitual sleep efficiency and sleep duration were the poorest. Intervention methods like sleep education, behavioral changes, and relaxation techniques are recommended to address contributing factors and eventually maximize their academic purposes.