How are university students’ sleep quality affected by different Variables during COVID-19 remote learning?

Abstract

Background: Severe restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic had negatively affected many health and lifestyle behaviors, including sleep quality, which was correlated to several variables.

Aims: To examine the association between sleeping quality, gender, smoking, and body mass index during remote learning periods among university students.

Methodology: an online cross-sectional study, that included undergraduate and graduate university students, aged 18-30 years old. A self-reported questionnaire was used. Sleep quality was assessed using a validated Arabic version of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI).

Results: there was a significant weak correlation between gender and sleep disturbance. While smoking had a significantly weak correlation with subjective sleep quality (r =0.114, p=0.005), and sleep latency (r =0.115, p=0.005). Body mass index had significantly no correlation with sleep latency (r =0.008, p=0.045). However, most of the participants who had low to high sleep disturbance were females (p=0.002), and the participants who had very good subjective sleep quality and no sleep latency were non-smokers (90.0% and 89.2%, respectively). The underweight participants had a higher percentage of very bad subjective sleep quality (20.7%).

Conclusion: a weak correlation between sleeping quality component with gender and smoking. no correlation between BMI and the sleeping quality component. Females had higher sleep disturbance and non-smokers had very good subjective sleep quality and no sleep latency. The underweight body mass is associated with very bad subjective sleep quality, and normal weight is associated with fairly good subjective sleep quality.