Abstract :
Adequate and efficient sleep plays a crucial role in memory and learning. Thus, it is so important for students to have adequate and efficient sleep to perform well in academics. This cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the correlation between sleep quality and academic performance of undergraduate students from health-science-related courses attending a public institution in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 395 students from the faculty of Dentistry, Pharmacy and Allied Health were randomly selected and approached via email for participation in the study. Consented students were given a set of questionnaires through the Google Form, consisting of information regarding their demographic data, grade point average (GPA) of last semester and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire. Collected data were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The correlation between the global PSQI scores and the GPA of the students from each faculty was determined using Spearman’s rank coefficient correlation. Majority of the students across the faculties reported good sleep quality, good sleep efficiency, minimal sleep alteration and not taking any substance to help them to sleep better. 79.6 % of students from the Faculty of Pharmacy reported a global PSQI score of >5, followed by the Faculty of Allied Health (76.2%) and Faculty of Dentistry (66.4%). Mean GPA for all students lies within the excellent and good category. Only students from the Faculty of Pharmacy showed a weak negative correlation between the global PSQI scores and GPA, rs(98) = 0.266, p=0.008.
