Association between visual impairment and sleep duration in college students: A study conducted in UAE and Lebanon

Objective: To examine whether self-reported sleep duration and visual impairment were associated among College students. Participants: Students (n = 1002, age 17–35 years) from Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Methods: Students were asked to complete a validated questionnaire between October 2018 and May 2019. The questions were related to sociodemographics, lifestyle characteristics, visual impairment status, sleeping pattern, mobile-phone use and chronic conditions. Results: 18.3% of the respondents reported to suffer from visual impairment. Among them, 72.7% were females (p <.001), 65% admitted to frequently use mobile phones before sleeping (p <.001), 54.6% reported to sleep less than 7 h (p =.008) and 71.6% reported to suffer from sleep disturbances (p =.05). Visual impairment was associated with poor sleep quality (p <.001), mobile phone use before sleeping (p <.01) and daily stress (p <.05). Conclusion: Visual impairment in college students is associated with short sleep duration, mobile phone use before sleeping and stress level.