Search

Insomnia symptoms are common among medical students. This study explored the perspectives of medical students about which sleep management strategies to use. Medical students responded to an online survey on their thoughts about the use of various sleep management strategies. Of the 828 respondents, 568 (69%) provided responses to questions about the most preferred strategies and 450 (54%) provided responses about their least preferred strategies. About 48.5% felt their insomnia symptoms were too mild to see a clinician and 23.9% did not think their symptoms warranted sleep medication. Over 40% of students could not avoid work before sleep, have consistent sleep/wake times, or engage in regular exercise because of their busy and inconsistent schedules. Approximately 40–60% could not improve their sleep environment (e.g. better heating and bed) because of the associated costs. Over 80% reported an inability to change their pre-sleep habits (e.g. using electronics close to bedtime, using bed for activities other than sleep or sex). Half of the students disliked relaxation techniques or felt they would not help. Around 30–50% did not believe that changing caffeine and/or alcohol intake would affect their sleep. Medical students may benefit from additional sleep education. Clinicians may need to discuss which strategies individual students prefer and modify their recommendations accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to investigate factors which might affect the sleep of medical students, and how they currently manage their sleep. An online survey was sent to medical students at the University of Otago. After adjusting for gender, ethnicity and age, depressive symptoms (Mild: odds ratio (OR) = 6.3; Moderate: OR = 18.1; Severe: OR = 15.6), and sleep hygiene (OR = 1.07) were associated with insomnia symptoms. Commonly endorsed strategies for sleep management by students were undertaking regular exercise (80.1%), having consistent sleep-wake time (71.3%), and limiting caffeine intake (70.3%). Few were willing to see a clinician (23.4%) or take medication (22.3%). Participants with insomnia symptoms were more likely to prefer limiting their alcohol intake (OR = 1.8), limiting daytime naps (OR = 1.5), seeing clinicians (OR = 1.9), and taking sleep medication (OR = 4.0), but less likely to prefer avoiding intense work (OR =.71) or minimizing using electronics (OR =.60) close to bedtime than those without insomnia symptoms. High sleep self-efficacy was associated with lower odds for having insomnia symptoms (OR =.74 (.70,.77)). Increased awareness and greater resources are needed to support the sleep health of medical students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]