ABSTRACT

Sleep disorders are common medical condition globally including Nigeria. It affects all categories of persons and age
groups thereby posing a great burden on the sufferers. Despite this, there is dearth of studies focusing on this specialty as
well as low knowledge and under-recognition of sleep disorders among practicing medical professionals. This study
was designed to assess the awareness and knowledge of sleep medicine among practicing clinicians in Nigeria. It was
cross-sectional hospital-based descriptive study using a convenient sampling method. The knowledge of sleep
medicine among practicing doctors in three Nigerian hospitals was assessed with Assessment of Sleep Knowledge in
Medical Education (ASKME) instrument. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 21. There were 149 participants that
were interviewed. The majority, 94 (63.1%) were males and 55 (36.9%) were females. Professional designations of the
participants were: 67 (45.0%) House officers, 32 (21.5%) Medical officers, 35 (23.5%) Resident doctors and 15
(10.1%) were Consultants (Specialist). Most physicians, 96 (64.4%) had low level of knowledge while 53 (35.6%) had
high level of knowledge. There was no correlation between level of knowledge and years of medical practice. Most
respondents 69 (46.3%) advocated the introduction of sleep medicine in undergraduate medical curriculum.
Knowledge and awareness of sleep medicine among practicing clinicians is low and does not correlate with the number
of years of practice. There is the need to integrate sleep medicine into medical training and in continuous medical
education and to promote specialization in the field in Nigeria