Association between Social Media Use and Sleep Quality among Medical and Dental Students at HITEC-IMS, Taxila Cantt: A Cross-Sectional study

Abstract

Background: Sleep plays a vital role in physical and mental well-being, as well as academic performance. Excessive use of social media has been associated with poor sleep quality, particularly amongst medical students who are already vulnerable due to academic stress.

Objectives: To assess the association between social media use with quality of sleep of medical and dental students of HITEC IMS, Taxila cantt, by determining the frequency of social media use and assessing sleep quality.

Methodology: An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 231 medical and dental students using stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected using structured questionnaire including socio-demographic, smartphone addiction and sleep quality variables. Smartphone addiction was assessed using Smartphone Addiction Scale–Short Version (SAS-SV) while the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to determine the sleep quality. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, and correlation analyses were applied using SPSS version 26.

 Results: Among participants, 54.5% were identified as addicted to smartphones primarily for social media use. Poor sleep quality was observed in 99.1% of students. Smartphone addiction showed weak but statistically significant positive correlation with poor quality of sleep (Spearman ρ= 0.234, p < 0.001). Conclusion: This study highlights high prevalence of poor sleep among medical and dental students, along with excessive use of social media contributing to disturbance of sleep.

Keywords: Cell Phone Overuse, Internet Dependence, Medical Students, Sleep Quality, Social Media Addiction