[Psychosocial factors influencing the dynamics and sleep quality in medical students]

To analyze the dynamics and sleep quality in medical students during 2005-2009 years and evaluate possible factors influencing this process.

The study included 2788 medical 1st, 4th and 6th year students (1919 girls, 869 young men). All participants underwent comprehensive psychophysiological testing. Self-reported questionnaire containing 45 questions about sleep quality, sleep hygiene, chronotype, behaviour was administered. Five hundred and seventeen girls and 260 young men were studied twice.

During 14 years, a negative sleep quality trend was observed in university students of all groups. The poor sleep group in 2019 consisted of 12.0-13.4% of girls and 8.2-18.4% of young men. About half of students have rated their own sleep as good (48.9-58.3% of girls and 52.2-55.4% of young men). From the first up to last semester of the study sleep quality is getting worse. The prospective analysis revealed the greater negative prognostic impact of self-reported poor sleep on academic performance in girls compared with young men. In the 4th year of the study, there were many poor-sleepers of both genders required more years of study for successful academic achievement. Students reported poor sleep were more activated and performed psychometrical tasks faster. Sleep quality, especially in girls, was significantly correlated with 19 psychosocial factors. The reliable marker of poor sleep may be feeling of lack of time both in girls (r= -0.32, p<0.01; r= -0.29, p<0.01; r= -0.22, p<0.05, respectively) and young men (r= -0.21, p<0.05; r= -0.34, p<0.01; r= -0.27, p<0.05, respectively) in their 1st, 4th and 6th study year, and the consequence was the slower transition to active functioning in the morning and lower health self-evaluation.