Effect of Sleep Deprivation on Reaction Time Towards Visual Stimuli in Medical Students

A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Shalamar Medical & Dental College, Lahore, for 4 to 5 months. Through non-probability sampling, 264 students were selected for the study. MBBS students currently studying at Shalamar Medical and Dental College and attending classes at least 5 days a week were included in this study. The data were collected after obtaining the informed consent with the help of a questionnaire and psychomotor vigilance test. The data was entered and analyzed with SPSS version 22. Quantitative variables from the data set were analyzed by student t-test. A p-value of ? 0.05 was considered significant.Results: The difference between the mean reaction time of male subjects and that of the female subjects was non-significant with a p-value of 0.443. The difference between the mean reaction time of the subjects who were habitual caffeine consumers and those who were non-consumers was found to be significant with a p-value of 0.042.Lastly, the difference between the mean reaction time of subjects who slept less than 6 h and those who slept more than 6 h was non-significant with a p-value of 0.463. Gender has no role in the mean reaction time of medical students to visual stimuli, habitual caffeine intake shortens the reaction time and restricted sleep loss does not affect the psychomotor vigilance task.