 Introduction: Sleep disorders, especially insomnia and excessive daytime sleepiness, are common disorders seen amongst approximately one-third of the adult population. These disorders are known to increase the prevalence of various somatic diseases, psychiatric disorders as well as social problems. Medical students are more predisposed to poor sleep due to their longer work hours, higher intensity of study and academic load, clinical, and other lifestyle choices.  Aim &Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of sleep deprivation and to assess the awareness and attitude towards related health problems among medical students in a private college.  Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in a private medical college in Tamil Nadu. This study is a cross-sectional study. The sample size was calculated using the d- squared formula and calculated to be 400. Data was collected using the self-reportable sleep and Daytime Habits Questionnaire (S&DHQ). It covered demographic characteristics (4 questions) and sleep and daytime habits (24 questions). The supplement includes information about lifestyle and academic progress on a four-point scale. The ‘Effects of sleep deprivation’ section contains 6 questions and focuses on the ill-effects of sleep deprivation.  Results: The S&DHQ was used to study sleep problems, assess sleep quality and ill-effects of sleep deprivation in young medical students. The subjective sleep quality of students was as follows: excellent- 12 percentile; good- 38 percentile; satisfactory- 34 percentile; poor-13 percentile; very poor- 2 percentile.  Conclusion: The results of the study depict that approximately 50 percentage of medical students have sleep deprivation. There was no association between sleep quality and mode of study. There was a high association between sleep quality and academic progress (‘p’ lesser than 0.0001). The most common sleep disorders were snoring and waking up because of nightmares.

Keywords : Sleep Deprivation; Insomnia; Medical Students; Related Health Disorders.