A cross-sectional study on the effect of bedtime smartphone usage on sleep quality, sleep duration and daytime sleepiness in medical students

Background: Sleep is a physiological phenomenon. It is a condition of unawareness that the body regulates homeostatic. Sleep is essential because it plays a leading role in mental and physical function, removing toxins, preventing diseases, etc. Reduced sleep among young adults is becoming a significant health problem worldwide. Several factors have been shown to lead to poor sleep quality, but the reason smartphone use creates sleep disorders in young adults has attracted great curiosity for a few years. The study aimed to assess sleep quality, duration, and daytime sleep dysfunction among medical students who use their smartphones at bedtime. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study included 109 medical students. The data was collected using a pre-validated questionnaire about bedtime mobile phone usage and Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI). The means were calculated, and the association was determined using statistical analysis. Results: In the study, 60% of participants indicated poor sleep quality was due to prolonged bedtime smartphone usage. The average global PSQI score was 5.4±2.5. Conclusion: This study concluded that participants had poor sleep quality measured by PSQI. In addition, prolonged smartphone usage during bedtime was strongly co-related to poor sleep latency.