Impact of Sleep Pattern of Pharmacy College Students on Academic Performance

Disrupted sleep pattern has shown to impact the mental health of medical sciences students. However, few studies assessed its association with academic performance, and the impact of other factors among pharmacy students. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between different sleep pattern variables and academic performance among pharmacy students.

A cross-sectional study using self-administered survey was distributed to all students at a large pharmacy college in Saudi Arabia between November 2020 and February 2021. The students were asked to answer based on their sleep pattern and academic performance in the previous year of 2019-2020 (before COVID-19 lockdown).

237 students completed the survey. Shorter sleeps before exams and taking medicines for insomnia were significantly associated with failing at least one course (adjOR = 0.78 and 3.68; 95% CI 0.63-0.97 and 1.18-11.49; P = 0.028 and 0.025, respectively). As such, for each extra hour of sleep/night on exam nights, there is a 0.22 lower odd of failing at least one course, and taking insomnia medications increases the odds of failing by 3.68 times. Fewer sleep hours were significantly correlated with tiredness upon wake up, daytime sleepiness, and in-class sleepiness (r  = - 0.24, - 0.38, and - 0.24, respectively; P ≤ 0.001 for all correlations).

Disrupted sleep pattern negatively impacted the academic performance of pharmacy students. Getting sufficient quality sleep, especially before exams, maybe associated with better performance and lower odds of course failures. College administrators should encourage good sleep hygiene to their students and pair the recommendations with evidence on the impact of sleep on academic performance.