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Insomnia and Physical Activity Among Medical Students: a Cross-Sectional Study

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Abstract

Sleeping is regarded as a significant biological and behavioral component of human physiology. Also, physical activity is considered a crucial part of human daily life. Data is scarce regarding sleep problems and physical activity among medical students especially in the Middle East. The current study aimed to identify the incidence of sleep disturbances among medical students and to investigate the effects of physical activity on sleep disturbances and self-reported insomnia. A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate students at our institution. The Insomnia Severity Index and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) were used to assess insomnia and physical activity, respectively. The total number of participants who filled the survey was 509 medical students. Our results revealed that 60.0% of the students had insomnia and only 6.1% of the students were physically active. In the multivariate model, age, gender, household income, use of caffeine drinks, smoking, use of sleeping medications, and psychiatric conditions were significantly associated with insomnia, while only living alone was significantly associated with insomnia. Also, the analysis of the relationship between Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and physical activity showed no significant relationship. The high prevalence of insomnia and low physical activity among medical students are worrisome. Therefore, further research is needed to evaluate whether increasing awareness about sleep and physical activity can reduce insomnia and inactivity prevalence and to explore other interventions and strategies that might be effective among medical student population.

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Data Availability

The authors confirm that all data generated or analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code Availability

Not applicable

Abbreviations

PA:

physical activity

ISI:

Insomnia Severity Index

IPAQ:

International Physical Activity Questionnaire

MET:

Metabolic Equivalent of Task

SPSS:

Statistical Package for Social Sciences

OR:

odds ratio

CI:

confidence interval

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Medicine, the University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Ahmad A. Toubasi, Jehad Feras AlSamhori, Rashad Saad Falih, Fatimah Alshadeedi, Abd Elrahman Firas Samhouri, Alaa Tarazi & Ahmad Feras AlSamhori

  2. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, the University of Jordan, Amman, 11942, Jordan

    Heba M. Kalbouneh

Authors
  1. Ahmad A. Toubasi
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  2. Jehad Feras AlSamhori
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  3. Rashad Saad Falih
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  4. Fatimah Alshadeedi
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Contributions

AAT and HMK were involved in conceptualization; AAT, MMH, JSA, and TAH were involved in data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, validation, visualization, and writing the original draft; HMK was involved in supervision and reviewing and editing the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ahmad A. Toubasi.

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Ethical Approval

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the University of Jordan has reviewed and approved the conductance of this research (10-2020-8570). This study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.

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An informed consent was taken from all participants.

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Toubasi, A.A., AlSamhori, J.F., Falih, R.S. et al. Insomnia and Physical Activity Among Medical Students: a Cross-Sectional Study. SN Compr. Clin. Med. 5, 266 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42399-023-01593-y

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