Students appear to begin medical school with disrupted sleep patterns that may not improve until their final year of study. Impaired sleep quality may contribute to fatigue in medical students even when sleep quantity seems adequate. Ethnic minority students reported significantly lower levels of sleep adequacy and sleep quantity and significantly higher levels of sleep somnolence than Caucasian students. First and second year students reported the highest levels of sleep somnolence. First and third year students reported higher rates of sleep-related problems compared to second and fourth year students. ResultsĪlthough participants reported obtaining nearly 7 h of sleep per night, the majority of students reported indicators of poor sleep quality. Medical students ( N = 860) representing 49 medical colleges completed the Medical Outcomes Study Sleep Scale and a demographic questionnaire between December 2015 and March 2016.

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the subjective sleep quality and quantity of US medical students and to identify differences in sleep characteristics across demographic groups. Sleep research in medical students typically focuses on sleep quantity, but less is known about the quality of a student’s sleep. Fatigue is a well-known risk factor for mood disturbances, decreased cognitive acuity, and impaired judgment.

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