A study to assess abnormal sleep pattern and its effect on health among adolescents

Background of Study: Adolescence is the most important period in one’s life. It is the period of stress and strain, of day dreams, of intense affection and excitement. Sleep is a primary aspect of adolescent’s development. The way adolescents sleep critically influence their ability to think, behave and feel during day time hours. Objective: To assess the abnormal sleep pattern among adolescents. To assess the effect of abnormal sleep pattern on health of adolescents. To find out the relationship of abnormal sleep pattern among adolescents with selected demographic variables-Age, Gender, Class, Birth order, Type of family, Family income, Use of internet and Time spent on watching television. Design and Methods: A Quantitative approach and Descriptive research design was used to assess abnormal sleep pattern and its effect on health among adolescents. The target population of study was adolescents studying in 9th to 12th standard in BCM Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana, Punjab. Sample of 500 adolescents were chosen by stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected by Pittsburgh sleep quality index to assess abnormal sleep pattern and PGI health questionnaire to assess effect of abnormal sleep pattern on health. Data collection was done in February, 2014. Results: Results of the study revealed that 33% of adolescents had abnormal sleep pattern, out of those maximum (36.97%) adolescents had very adversely affected health, followed by (35.15%) normal health and least (27.88%) had adversely affected health. A positive correlation (0.348) was found between abnormal sleep pattern and adversely affected health at p<0.01. The findings showed that demographic variables such as Gender (3.47, p < 0.01), Standard of study (2.97,p< 0.05), Family income (3.37, p<0.05), Use of internet (4.38,p< 0.01) and Time spend on watching television (2.70, p<0.05) had significant impact on abnormal sleep pattern among adolescents. The investigator prepared and distributed the pamphlets regarding good sleep pattern to promote healthy sleep pattern among adolescents.