The Relationship between Quality of Sleep and Geographical Directions during Sleeping Process

Objectives: Sleep has been one of God’s most precious blessings since human’s existence and it is vital for both body and soul. External and internal factors like age, sex, drug, illness, psychological pressure, job, life style and Earth’s magnetic field influence quality of sleep drastically. In this study we tended to find the relationship between geographical direction during sleeping process and quality of sleep. Methods: In a cross-sectional descriptive study, 200 students from university of Iran, Mazandaran province were selected arbitrarily. After exclusion, based on exclusion criteria, the number of research’s samples reached to 153. Tools used regarding collecting data were standard Pittsburg sleep quality inventory (PSQI) in order to assess the quality of the sleep. Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL- 90-R) was used in order to study psychiatric symptoms and an anonymous demographic questionnaire was used to record personal information, filled by individuals. Software Spss17 with chi-square were used for statistical analysis procedure. Results: 30.7%(47cases) slept in north-south direction, 22.8%(35) in south north, 26.2%(40) in east west and 20.3%(31) in west east. Among PSQI sleep scales, there was a strong relationship between difficulties in falling asleep with geographical directions of sleep (p<0.001). No significant relationship between sleep directions and other scales has been found. Conclusion: Considering the high prevalence of sleep difficulties and strong relationship between geographical directions and quality of sleep. With respect to this study, sleep in north-south position can be advised to improve sleep quality and it necessary in order to maintain sleep hygiene.