SOPHIA GEORGE

and 9 more

Introduction/Background: The nationwide lockdown enforced due to the devastating effect of the coronavirus disease -2019 had a definite impact on sleep health. Objective: To look out for any change in the duration, pattern and quality of sleep among pharmacy students that can be attributed to the lockdown. Methods: A google form-based cross-sectional and descriptive study was carried out after approval was obtained from the institutional ethics committee in the month of July 2021 among 310 pharmacy students. The validated form was electronically administered after obtaining the volunteer informed consent. All the data pertaining to duration, pattern and quality of sleep before and during the lockdown was collected and analysed using STATA version 16.0. Results and Discussion: Out of the total 310 participants, majority of the respondents were females 242 (78.06%). The study revealed an increase in the time needed to fall asleep (p-value<0.001) and in the total duration of sleep (p-value<0.001). A delay in the time of sleep in the morning (p-value<0.001) and at night (p-value<0.001) was also one among the many significant results. Well known reasons or consequences of disturbed sleep such as jerky leg movements (p-value<0.001), snoring (p-value<0.001), frequent nightmares (p-value<0.001) and anxiety (p-value<0.001) were also increased as a direct effect of the lockdown. Conclusion: The study has been able to establish the incidence of significant disturbances in the sleep architecture of pharmacy students due to the lockdown.