Background and Aims: The quality of sleep plays a significant role in the academic performance of dental students, especially in the clinical years. Identifying and treating students at risk of sleep disorders can reduce or limit the drop in academic performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the sleep quality and educational performance of Rafsanjan dental Student-Iran.
Materials and Methods: The present study was a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study that was conducted among all dental students in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences - Iran. This study was presented to all dental students in Rafsanjan by online questionnaire method on Pressline website. The questionnaire included demographic information and student number along with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Standard Questionnaire. The Pittsburgh Questionnaire examines the quality of sleep in the range of 0 to 21. The link of the questionnaire was made available to the students through Telegram, and the GPA of the total students was obtained by using the student number from the Vice-Chancellor of University Education. The data were analyzed with SPSS26 software. First, the data were analyzed with Smironov's kermograph test. The results of this test showed that the data distribution is not normal (P<0.05). Due to the non-normality of the data distribution, non-parametric tests such as K-score, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman were used.
Results: 151 students participated in the questionnaire of which, 73 were men (48.3%) and 78 were women (51.7%). The mean and standard deviation of the age of the subjects studied was 22.11±2.3 years. The overall average sleep quality score of dental students was equal to 8.13, which according to the questionnaire, students experience poor sleep quality. 86.1% of students had poor sleep quality. Examining the correlation between the sleep quality and academic performance showed that there was no significant relationship between them. Sleep quality had no significant relationship with gender, marital status, place of residence, and entry year (P<0.05).
Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that majority of dental students in Rafsanjan had low sleep quality. Although, there was no relationship between the quality of sleep and academic performance, it seems necessary to pay attention to the sleep status of these students in order to improve their sleep quality, which is an important factor in improving their health by administrators and Rizan health program.
