International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences | March 2019 | Vol 7 | Issue 3 Page 893 International Journal of Research in Medical Sciences Shakeel HA et al. Int J Res Med Sci. 2019 Mar;7(3):893-898 www.msjonline.org pISSN 2320-6071 | eISSN 2320-6012 Original Research Article Insomnia among medical students: a cross-sectional study Hassan Abdullah Shakeel, Hamza Maqsood*, Asher Ishaq, Basit Ali, Humza Hussain, Ali Raza Khan, Syed Asfand Yar Shah INTRODUCTION Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, is the perception or complaint of inadequate or poor-quality sleep because of one or more of the following conditions: 1,2 • Difficulty in falling asleep. • Frequent waking up during the night with difficulty for returning to sleep • Waking up too early in the morning • Un-refreshing sleep. Sleep disturbance is a psychiatric disorder. It is related to one of our biological rhythms called the circadian timing system, which is influenced by factors such as physiological function, school and work schedules, and Department of Psychiatry, Nishtar Medical University, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan Received: 04 January 2019 Accepted: 30 January 2019 *Correspondence: Dr. Hamza Maqsood, E-mail: hassanas260@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2320-6012.ijrms20190944 ABSTRACT Background: Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, is the perception or complaint of inadequate or poor- quality sleep because of one or more of the following conditions: difficulty in falling asleep, frequent waking up during the night with difficulty for returning to sleep, waking up too early in the morning, or unrefreshing sleep. It is the most common sleep related complaint reported in the primary care setting. Medical students are specially at risk of developing insomnia and its consequences. This study evaluates the prevalence and severity of insomnia in medical students in relation to certain socio-demographic factors like age, sex and class of education. Methods: A questionnaire based study was done on 135 medical students of Nishtar Medical University, Multan chosen on basis of random sampling to test the prevalence of insomnia using Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS). Out of these students 75 were males and 60 were females. Students were interviewed to obtain information about age, sex and academic year of education. Results: According to Athens insomniac scale scoring, 55 (40.74%) students were found insomniac while 80 (59.25%) were non-insomniac. Out of 55 insomniac students, 23 (41.81%) were males while 32 (58.18%) were females. Likewise, out of 80 non-insomniac students, 52 (65%) were males while 28 (35%) were females. The prevalence of insomnia in medical students was found to be increased with the increasing age. It was found that the females have more insomnia prevalence as well as more severe signs and symptoms of insomnia. Moreover, final year students tend to show more prevalence and severity of insomnia than their juniors. Conclusions: According to this study, 2 out of every 5 students were insomniac. Demographic comparison showed that the prevalence and severity of insomnia was more in females and final year students. Also, it was increasing side by side with increasing age. Keywords: Depression, Demographic, Insomnia, Neuro-cognitive