Correlation between Sleep Duration, Body Mass Index and Gender in Medical Students

Abstract

Background: People suffering from sleep disorders do not get adequate or restorative sleep, and sleep deprivation is associated with a number of both physical and emotional disturbances. The wide range of health and cognitive issues due to sleep loss, make it important to get an adequate night’s sleep daily.

Aims and Objectives: To study the effect of sleep duration on body mass index (BMI) in male and female medical students.

Material and Methods: The present study was done in the Postgraduate Department of Physiology, Government Medical College Srinagar and Associated Hospitals. This study was done on 500 subjects and it was an Observational, Cross sectional study.

Results: Out of 500(100%) subjects, 4.4 % of short sleepers were underweight, 61.3 % were normal weight and 34.4% were overweight/obese. Thus the prevalence of overweight/obese among short sleepers was quite high at 34.4 % as compared to 11.7 % and 15.2 % among normal sleepers and long sleepers respectively. This increase in the percentage of overweight/obese among short sleepers was in significant relationship with CHI square of 36.28 with a P value <0.001. (Statistically significant). On gender analysis, the mean BMI in subjects with short sleep was found to be 23.75 in males and 22.64 in females. The association was found in both the sexes with the relation stronger in females (P-value<0.001) as compared to males (P-value of 0.032). The relationship between sleep duration and BMI shows a U shaped curvilinear pattern, where BMI increases in subjects with sleep duration below 6 hours and above 8 hours, however the association in our study was stronger for short sleep duration in comparison with longer sleep durations.

Conclusion: Our study suggests a clear association between short sleep duration and overweight/obesity. This association was found in both the sexes with the relationship stronger in females as compared to males. Increasing sleep time might be a novel approach to obesity prevention and should become the target of public health policy.