Prevalence and influencing factors of sleep disturbance among medical students under the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Medical students may feel severe psychological stress during COVID-19, which might impair their ability to sleep. This research aimed to look at the risk factors for sleep disturbance and the prevalence of sleep disturbance among medical students.

Methods: 538 medical students in total were recruited for this research. Anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance were assessed using the Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). To evaluate the possible risk variables, we computed descriptive statistics for each assessment item and ran univariate and logistic regression analyses.

Results: Medical students had a 63.6% prevalence of sleep disturbance (n = 342). According to logistic regression, introverted students are 1.77 times more likely than extroverted students to have sleep disturbance (OR = 1.77, 95% CI 1.08-2.91). Medical students with depression had a 5.6-times higher risk of sleep disturbance than those without depression (OR = 5.60, 95% CI 3.43-9.15). Additionally, medical students with anxiety were 3.95 times more likely than those without anxiety to have sleep disturbance (OR = 3.95, 95% CI 2.04-7.64).

Conclusions: According to this research, the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant sleep disturbance among medical students. Additionally, among medical students, introversion, anxiety, and depression were risk factors for sleep disturbance.