(1345) Sleep Medicine Knowledge and Sleep Health Practices in Medical Students

Introduction: Medical students receive limited formal education on sleep medicine despite its importance for patient care. Although clinical training may improve knowledge of sleep medicine, medical students’ own sleep health often remains poor. The relationship between sleep medicine knowledge and sleep health behaviors has not yet been studied.

Methods: Medical students were surveyed on sleep medicine knowledge and self-rated sleep health via the Assessment of Sleep Knowledge in Medical Education (ASKME) and RU-SATED scale (maximum score 24, with higher scores indicating better sleep health), respectively. Demographics, stage of clinical training, and additional data on sleep health behaviors were collected. Results were compared between clinical versus preclinical students.

Results: In total, 115 participants (mean age 25.0±2.1 years, 57% female) completed the survey, with 48 (41.7%) clinical and 67 (58.3%) preclinical students. Compared to preclinical students, clinical students had higher ASKME scores (62.2% correct vs. 47.7%, p< 0.001), indicating higher knowledge; however, RU-SATED sleep health scores did not significantly differ (15.34 vs. 15.39, p=0.94). Twenty-four (20.9%) students reported using wearable devices or apps to monitor sleep. Among clinical students, 37.5% rated their sleep fairly bad or very bad during clinical year, and 73.7% reported sleeping < 6 hours per night for at least one month. The most common fatigue management strategies were caffeine use (58.3%), sleep hygiene strategies (56.2%), and exercise (45.8%).

Conclusions: Although clinical phase medical students had greater knowledge of sleep medicine, sleep health practices did not differ between preclinical and clinical phases, reflecting persistent sleep challenges despite increased knowledge.