Screen Time and Sleep Patterns: A Cross-Sectional Analysis among Undergraduate Medical Students in a Tertiary Care Hospital of West Bengal

Introduction: The current generation of teenagers is growing up immersed in a world saturated with electronic devices which is leading to alteration in sleep pattern and ocular manifestation. So, this study is focusing on assessing the screen time and sleep pattern of undergraduate medical students in a tertiary care hospital. Objective: To assess the effects of screen-time on sleep pattern among undergraduate medical students of a medical college in West Bengal. Materials and Methods: It was an institution based descriptive type of observational study, cross-sectional in design. The data was collected in May-June 2023 with the help of a semi structured questionnaire, circulated among the students. The collected data was analyzed and organized using MS Excel 2019. A pre-designed, pre-tested and semi-structured questionnaire comprising of sociodemographic profile, screentime assessment scale, Athens insomnia scale, knowledge and practice questionnaire. Result: Among the 800 undergraduate medical students, 349 students took part in the study. After analysis it was found that there is a positive correlation between screen time and sleep pattern (r value =0.460), indicating insomnia increases with screen time. It was also found that 34.9% of the study subjects have screen time between 4 to 6 hours and 34% of the study subjects have insomnia. It was also inferred that there is a gap between knowledge and practice. Conclusion: From this study it can be concluded that insomnia and other ocular manifestations increase with screen time. Hence, it is recommended to people to reduce screen time as much as possible.