Investigating the Relationship Between the Early Rising and Depression Studied on the Students in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences

One of the most important problems of depressed patients is increasing the duration of rapid eye movement sleep (REM) and dreaming too much. Accordingly, depriving the depressed patients of REM can effect on decreasing the level of depression. This study was done to compare the level of depression between the early rising and non-early rising students.Patients and This descriptive-analytical study was performed on a sample including 310 students studying in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences. Quota sampling was the method used in this study. Data collection material included a questionnaire containing two parts such as personal features and the questions about the early rising. In the second part, to investigate the depression level, Beck 21-question test was used. The data were analyzed using SPSS and the Qui-square, t-test and ANOVA. The mean ± SD of depression level in the early rising and non-early rising students was 5.66 ± 5.92 and 10.5 ± 9.17, respectively. The independent t-test showed the significant difference between these two groups (P = 0.0001). Also, the results showed that 24 (7.7%) of early rising and 91 (29.4%) of non-early rising students were depressed to some degrees. At all levels, the level of depression in non-early rising students was higher than that in early rising ones. In this study, the significant relationship was observed between the early rising and depression. Although the religious, cultural and scientific teachings accentuated the positive affect of early rising, most of the students were not early risers. So, this study suggests that, the situations in which the students are persuaded to get up early especially in dormitory, be provided.