Insomnia and its predictors among undergraduate students of a medical college in West Bengal: A descriptive cross-sectional study

Background: To minimize the risk of adverse outcomes associated with insomnia and to develop effective intervention strategies, it is crucial to estimate its prevalence and identify related factors among medical students. Aims and Objectives: This study was carried out to estimate the prevalence of insomnia among medical students and to find out its association with certain sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Materials and Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted during September–December 2025 among undergraduate medical students from all professional years of a medical college in West Bengal. A total of 199 study subjects were selected by stratified random sampling from all the professional years of MBBS. Data were collected by a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire, and insomnia was assessed by the Athens Insomnia Scale. Depression as a possible factor was assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9) scale. Collected data were entered into an MS-Excel sheet, double checked, and the principles of descriptive statistics were used. Chi-square test was done. For analysis, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20 was used. Results: The mean age of the students was 21.6±1.02 years, of whom 26.1% were suffering from insomnia. As per the PHQ-9 score (cutoff>10), 46 (23.1%) participants were found to have depression. Family history of sleep disorder, Caffeine intake, and presence of depression were significantly associated (P<0.05) with insomnia. Conclusion: This is the need of the hour to educate about sleep hygiene and the adverse consequences of insomnia. Counseling sessions addressing mental well-being and sleep hygiene may be arranged in medical colleges with proper policy formulation in the future.