Quality of Sleep in the Saudi Population During the Holy Month of Ramadan

Khalid M Al Harbi; Lubna Saleh Alsaleem; Abdulrahman I Alsaidan; Bader S Almalki; Rayan Qutub; Yousef Alammari

doi:10.7759/cureus.50897

Quality of Sleep in the Saudi Population During the Holy Month of Ramadan

Cureus. 2023 Dec 21;15(12):e50897. doi: 10.7759/cureus.50897. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Authors

Khalid M Al Harbi¹, Lubna Saleh Alsaleem², Abdulrahman I Alsaidan², Bader S Almalki³, Rayan Qutub⁴, Yousef Alammari¹

Affiliations

¹ College of Medicine, ‏Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, SAU.
² College of Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, SAU.
³ Department of Surgery, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, SAU.
⁴ Department of Internal Medicine, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, SAU.

Abstract

Background The holy month of Ramadan carries a massive change in a Muslim's lifestyle. During these 30 days of all-day fasting, people in Saudi Arabia prefer staying up all night and sleeping in the daytime, thus highly impacting their regular sleeping schedule, with a sizable effect on the quality of sleep. This study aimed to measure the quality of sleep and sleep hygiene practices in the Saudi population. Methodology This cross-sectional study was conducted among the Saudi population during the holy month of Ramadan. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to the targeted population using social media platforms. Our questionnaire included demographic data, the Sleep Quality Scale (SQS) to measure sleep quality, and the Sleep Hygiene Index (SHI) to measure sleep hygiene practices. Results Of the 386 participants, 71.2% were females, and 64.5% were single. The total mean SQS score was 35.8 (SD = 10.9) out of 84 points, while the total mean SHI score was 19.8 (SD = 8.61) out of 52 points. Overall, 63.5% of the respondents had poor sleep hygiene practices. Significant factors for increased SHI included being unmarried, a student, not the main provider in the family, not a parent, and earning less than 5,000 SAR per month while having more than six individuals in the family was a significant factor for increased SQS. Conclusions During the month of Ramadan, poor sleep quality and inadequate sleep hygiene practices were common among the Saudi population. A significant risk factor for poor sleep quality was having more than six individuals at home while being unmarried, a student, not being the family's main provider, and earning less than 5,000 SAR per month were the significant risk factors for poor sleep hygiene practices. Further research is needed to establish the effect of poor sleep quality and inadequate sleep hygiene practices during Ramadan fasting in our region.

Keywords: ramadan; saudi population; sleep hygiene; sleep hygiene index; sleep quality; sleep quality scale.