Sleep disturbance and medical requests among university and college students in Chongqing, China: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the prevalence of sleep disturbance, sleep patterns, sleep-related factors, and medical demands among university and college students in Chongqing, China.

METHODS

Demographic data and responses to the sleep problem questionnaire (SPQ) were collected from 1973 students from 11 universities and 10 colleges between November 2022 and January 2023.

RESULTS

The prevalence of sleep disturbance in university and college students was different in different periods (58.17% during campus lockdown and 40.30% after the lifting of lockdown). The combined prevalence was 49.72%. The prevalence of the 6 types of sleep disturbance showed the same trend. The average sleep latency was 32.79 minutes and the average sleep duration was 7.53 hours. Male, university students, upper-class students, history of depression, academic stress, major life events, bad bedroom environment, and campus lockdown were factors related to sleep disturbance among respondents. Most of the respondents (52.09%) had no medical care requests, and the major reasons were a lack of access to medical care (75.15%), economic pressure (68.49%), concerns regarding curative effects (58.51%), and academic pressure (56.56%).

CONCLUSION

The prevalence of sleep disturbance for university and college students was obviously improved after the lifting of campus lockdown, and the major factors related to sleep disturbance were study, life, mental health, and sleep environment. The students examined herein reported relatively low medical care requests when they experience sleep disturbance.