Primary research

Sleep patterns and habits in high school students in Iran

Ahmad Ghanizadeh^1,2 , Mohsen Kianpoor¹ , Mehdi Rezaei³ , Hadi Rezaei³ , Rozita Moini³ , kamran Aghakhani⁴ , Jamshid Ahmadi¹ and Seyed Reza Moeini⁵

¹  Department of Psychiatry, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

²  Research Center for Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

³  Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran

⁴  Department of Forensic Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

⁵  Hazrat Fatemeh Heart Center, Shiraz, Iran

author email corresponding author email

Annals of General Psychiatry 2008, 7:5doi:10.1186/1744-859X-7-5

Published:	13 March 2008

Abstract

Background

Sleep patterns and habits in high school students in Iran have not been well studied to date. This paper aims to re-address this balance and analyse sleep patterns and habits in Iranian children of high school age.

Methods

The subjects were 1,420 high school students randomly selected by stratified cluster sampling. This was a self-report study using a questionnaire which included items about usual sleep/wake behaviours over the previous month, such as sleep schedule, falling asleep in class, difficulty falling asleep, tiredness or sleepiness during the day, difficulty getting up in the morning, nightmares, and taking sleeping pills.

Results

The mean duration of night sleep was 7.7 h, with no difference between girls, boys, and school year (grade). The mean time of waking in the morning was not different between genders. About 9.9% of the girls and 4.6% of the boys perceived their quality of sleep as being bad, and 58% of them reported sleepiness during the day. About 4.2% of the subjects had used medication to enhance sleep. The time of going to bed was associated with grade level and gender. Sleep latency was not associated with gender and grade leve, l and 1.4% experienced bruxism more than four times a week.

Conclusion

Our results are in contrast with that of previous studies that concluded sleep duration is shorter in Asia than in Europe, that boys woke-up significantly later than girls, and that the frequency of sleep latency category was associated with gender and grade level. The magnitude of the daytime sleepiness, daytime sleepiness during classes, sleep latency, and incidences of waking up at night represent major public health concerns for Iran.