Sleep pattern and prevalence of sleep disturbances in medical students and specialist residents

Regarding to high prevalence of sleep disorders in general population and effect of sleep on mental and physical function, and also due to attention-requiring task done by physicians, prevalence of sleep disorders in medical students as well as the relation of these problems with daytime sleepiness and their function based on gender and grade were assessed. In this study, 400 medical residents and students were evaluated by means of a questionnaire from the Kaplan textbook and questionnaire of life style assessment (S-DHQ). Data were analyzed by SPSS ver.13 and descriptive and comparative statistics, including mean, standard deviation, chi- square, ANOVA, paired t were used. Among different types of Insomnia, fragmented sleep was the most prevalent (49%) and sleep latency more than 1 hour (7.3%) was the least common disorders. Nightmares were the most common (32%) form of Parasomnia, while sleep eating disorder had the least prevalence (1%). We didnt found any report of narcolepsia. There was a significant relation between sleep disorders and daytime sleepiness and self-reported dissatisfaction of function that was more common in women and interns. Any type of sleep disorders can lead to daytime sleepiness and human's dissatisfaction of their function, particularly in women.