Sleep and the Nigerian Environment: Understanding the True Markers of Sleep Quality

Sound sleep aids sound health and good ageing, unfortunately, people still wake up in the morning feeling tired, sleep at work, and sometimes unnecessarily aggressive. It is normal to experience sleeplessness once in a while, but it is not normal to regularly have problems getting to sleep at night and to wake up feeling exhausted. Poverty, socioeconomic instability, inadequate medicare etc. have continued to hamper the quality of sleep for the majority of the populace. Sleep helps the brain to function properly and not getting enough sleep or poor quality sleep has many consequences: behavioural problems in children, hypertension, fatigue, cardiovascular diseases, mental health problems etc. in adults. This study evaluated subjective sleep qualities (timing of sleep, environmental factors, health status, and socioeconomic status) on the sleep status of an average Nigerian adult in selected areas of South-West Nigeria. A descriptive analysis was used for the study as contained in the SPSS version 15.0 software on a total population of 207 adults. A self-developed questionnaire validated by experts in the field producing an Alpha reliability co-efficient of 0.735 was used for the study analysis. Findings from the study revealed no significant relationship between gender, religious affiliations and sleep quality, whereas, age, nature of work, health status, body height, marriage, the timing of sleep and hobbies have critical negative and positive significances with sleep qualities respectively. In all, the subjective sleep factors as indicated in the study could be depended upon in rating the sleep quality of an average Nigerian adult.