Effect of Sleep Quality on the Academic Performance and Cognitive Functions among the College Students

Introduction: Impaired quality of sleep affects the cognitive ability and has a negative impact on the academic performance of medical students. The relationship between sleep and cognitive function has been a topic of interest for over a century. In the last decades, excessive daytime sleepiness and poor quality of sleep have been increasingly recognized as symptoms that must be identified and managed early because of their high prevalence in the general population, their numerous and potentially serious consequences . Objectives: 1) To determine the effects of sleep quality on the academic performance of college students. 2) To evaluate the effect of sleep deprivation on cognitive functions among the college students. Methods and Materials: The data collection was done by stratified random sampling. Total of 94 students between the age group of 18 - 25 years are included in this study. A Standardized Questionnaire is used to assess the sleep quality of the subjects and The Epworth Sleepiness Scale is used as a subjective measure to assess patient's sleepiness. The MoCA?s test is used as a cognitive screening test. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA). Age is represented by Mean ?SD. All categorical variables presented as frequency and percentage. To find the correlation between MOCA score and Epworth score, Bi - serial correlation coefficient was computed and its statistical significance was tested using Linear Regression t test. To test the statistical significance of the association of sleep quality variables with cognitive impairment, Chi - square test was used. A p value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. RESULT: The results showed the students not getting sufficient amount of sleep have more chance for developing cognitive impairment compared to those getting sufficient amount of sleep. Other sleep quality variables showed statistically no significant association with cognitive impairment. Those students who have daytime sleepiness have more chance for cognitive impairment. Among 53 students who are getting sufficient amount of sleep, the distribution of grade was A+ 11.3% students, A for 28.3%, B+ for 30.2%, B for 20.8% and grade C+ for 9.4% compared to those who have no getting sufficient amount of sleep (41 students), the distribution of grade was A+ for 2.4% students, A for 26.8%, B+ for 46.3%, B for 24.4% and none of them have grade C+. Conclusion: Among the study population about 40% of the students believed that sleep quality affected their academic performance. Poor sleep quality affected the cognitive functions of the students.