sleep deprivation on academic performance essay

Problem of Sleep Deprivation Cause and Effect Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Introduction

• What is Sleep Deprivation?

Causes of Sleep Deprivation

Effects of sleep deprivation, managing sleep deprivation, works cited.

The functioning of the human body is influenced by a number of factors, which are mainly determined by the health status of an individual. Oftentimes, people seek medication when the body deviates from its normal and usual functioning mechanisms. Through different activities and processes, the body is able to use energy and replenish itself. Sleeping is one of the activities that has a direct effect on the functioning of the body.

This sleep deprivation essay explores how the functioning of the human body is influenced by various factors, primarily determined by an individual’s health status. While most people do not understand the implications of sleep, human effectiveness solely depends on the amount of time dedicated to sleeping. However, for various reasons, people fail to get enough sleep daily, weekly, or on a regular basis.

What Is Sleep Deprivation?

This cause and effect of sleep deprivation essay defines sleep deprivation as a condition occurring among human beings when they fail to get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation is defined as a condition that occurs when human beings fail to get enough sleep. Many experts argue that sleep deficiency is widespread even though most people do not consider it to be a serious issue, which affects their (Gaine et al.). Sleep deprivation has become a major problem in the United States, with almost 47 million suffering from the condition (Wang and Xiaomin). This lack of sleep can lead to a variety of physical and mental health issues, impacting daily functioning and quality of life.

The present essay about sleep deprivation defines sleep deprivation as a condition that occurs among human beings when they fail to get enough sleep. Many experts argue that sleep deficiency is widespread even though most people do not consider it to be a serious issue that affects their lives. Sleep deprivation has become a major problem in the United States, with almost forty-seven million suffering from the condition (Wang and Xiaomin). Among other reasons, one may get insufficient sleep in a day as a result of various factors. Some people sleep at the wrong time due to busy daily schedules, while others have sleep disorders, which affect their sleeping patterns. The following segment of the paper discusses the causes of deprivation.

Sleep deprivation may occur as a result of factors that are not known to the patients. This is based on the fact that sleep deprivation may go beyond the number of hours one spends in bed. In some cases, the quality of sleep matters in determining the level of deprivation.

In this context, it is possible for one to be in bed for more than eight hours but suffer from the negative effects of sleep deprivation. Whilst this is the case, there are people who wake every morning feeling tired despite having spent a recommended number of hours in bed (Griggs et al.14367).

Sleep deprivation can be caused by medical conditions, which may include but are not limited to asthma, arthritis, muscle cramps, allergies, and muscular pain. These conditions have been classified by researchers as common medical conditions that largely contribute to most of the cases of sleep deprivation being witnessed in the United States.

Similarly, these medical conditions have a direct impact on not only the quality but also the time one takes in bed sleeping. It is worth noting that sometimes people are usually unconscious to realize that their sleep is not deep enough (Wang and Xiaomin). This also explains the reason why it is not easy for a person to recall any moment in life when he or she moved closer to waking up.

Treatment of cases like sleep apnea is important because it affects the quality of sleep without necessarily awakening the victim. This is because medical surveys have revealed fatal effects of sleep apnea, especially on the cardiovascular system. Besides these, one is likely to experience breathing difficulties caused by insufficient oxygen.

Even though the treatment of sleep deprivation is important, it has been found that some drugs used to treat patients may worsen the case or lead to poor quality of sleep. It is, therefore, necessary for the doctor to determine the best drugs to use. Discussions between doctors and victims are imperative in order to understand patients’ responses (Conroy et al. 185).

Sleep deprivation is also caused by sleep cycle disruptions, which interfere with the fourth stage of sleep. Oftentimes, these disruptions are described as night terrors, sleepwalking, and nightmares.

Though these disorders are known not to awaken a person completely, it is vital to note that they may disrupt the order of sleep cycles, forcing a person to move from the fourth stage to the first one. Victims of these disruptions require attention in order to take corrective measures.

In addition, there are known environmental factors which contribute to several cases of sleep deprivation. However, doctors argue that the impact on the environment is sometimes too minimal to be recognized by people who are affected by sleep deficiency (Gaine et al.). In other words, these factors affect the quality of sleep without necessarily arousing a person from sleep.

Common examples include extreme weather conditions, like high temperatures, noise, and poor quality of the mattress. As a result, they may contribute to a person’s awakening, depending on the intensity when one is sleeping.

Moreover, the impact of these factors may develop with time, thus affecting one’s quality of sleep. In addition, most of the environmental factors that contribute to sleep deprivation can be fixed easily without medical or professional skills. Nevertheless, the challenge is usually how to become aware of their existence.

Lastly, sleep deprivation is caused by stress and depression, which have been linked to other health disorders and complications. Together with some lifestyles in America, these factors are heavily contributing to sleep deficiency in most parts of the world. Even though they might not be acute enough to awaken an individual, their cumulative effects usually become significant.

There are countless stressors in the world that affect youths and adults. While young people could be concerned with passing exams, adults are normally preoccupied with pressure to attain certain goals in life. These conditions create a disturbed mind, which may affect a person’s ability to enjoy quality sleep.

Sleep deprivation has a host of negative effects which affect people of all ages. The commonest effect is stress. Most people who suffer from sleep deficiency are likely to experience depression frequently as compared to their counterparts who enjoy quality sleep (Conroy et al. 188). As a result, stress may lead to poor performance among students at school.

Research has revealed that students who spend very few hours in bed or experience disruptions during sleep are likely to register poor performance in their class assignments and final exams. Additionally, sleep deprivation causes inefficiency among employees.

For instance, drivers who experience this disorder are more likely to cause accidents as compared to those who are free from it (Griggs et al.14367). This is based on the fact that un-refreshed people have poor concentration and low mastery of their skills.

Besides stress and anxiety, sleep deprivation has a wide-range of health-related effects. For instance, medical experts argue that people who spend less than six hours in bed are likely to suffer from high blood pressure. Quality sleep gives the body an opportunity to rest by slowing down the rate at which it pumps blood to the rest of the body (Wang and Xiaomin).

Inadequate sleep implies that the heart has to work without its normal and recommended rest. Additionally, sleep deprivation is known to affect the immune system. People who experience this disorder end up with a weakened immune system, leaving the body prone to most illnesses. This reduced immune response accumulates and may become fatal with time.

Sleep paralysis is also a common effect of inadequate sleep. This is due to disruption of the sleep cycle. It primarily occurs when the body is aroused during the fourth stage of the sleep cycle. In this case, the body is left immobile as the mind regains consciousness. Due to this conflict, one may experience pain and hallucinations.

Based on the negative effects of sleep deprivation, there is a need to manage this disorder among Americans. Firstly, it is necessary for people to seek medical advice concerning certain factors which could be contributing to this condition, like stress and infections (Wang and Xiaomin).

Proper counseling is also vital in stabilizing a person’s mental capacity. Physical exercises are also known to relieve a person from stressful conditions, contributing to sleep deficiency. Lastly, it is essential to ensure that the environment is free from noise and has regulated weather conditions.

Sleep deprivation remains a major problem in America, affecting millions of people. As discussed above, sleep deprivation is caused by a host of factors, ranging from environmental to health-related issues. Moreover, sleep deficiency has countless effects, most of which may become fatal in cases where the disorder is chronic.

Conroy, Deirdre A., et al. “ The Effects of COVID-19 Stay-at-home Order on Sleep, Health, and Working Patterns: A Survey Study of US Health Care Workers. ” Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine , vol. 17, no. 2, Feb. 2021, pp. 185–91.

Gaine, Marie E., et al. “ Altered Hippocampal Transcriptome Dynamics Following Sleep Deprivation. ” Molecular Brain, vol. 14, no. 1, Aug. 2021.

Griggs, Stephanie, et al. “ Socioeconomic Deprivation, Sleep Duration, and Mental Health During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic. ” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 19, no. 21, Nov. 2022, p. 14367.

Wang, Jun, and Xiaomin Ren. “ Association Between Sleep Duration and Sleep Disorder Data From the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and Stroke Among Adults in the United States .” Medical Science Monitor , vol. 28, June 2022.

• Multiple Sclerosis - Definition and Causes
• Description and Criteria for Traumatic Brain Injury
• The Issue of Chronic Sleep Deprivation
• Sleep Deprivation: Biopsychology and Health Psychology
• Sleep Deprivation Impacts on College Students
• How the Brain Learns: Neuro-Scientific Research and Recent Discoveries
• Parkinson's Disease Treatment Approaches
• Concepts of Batten Disease
• Dyslexia: Definition, Causes, Characteristics
• How Dysphagia Disorder (Swallowing Disorder) is Caused in Parkinson’s Disease
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, June 2). Problem of Sleep Deprivation. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sleep-deprivation/

"Problem of Sleep Deprivation." IvyPanda , 2 June 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/sleep-deprivation/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Problem of Sleep Deprivation'. 2 June.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Problem of Sleep Deprivation." June 2, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sleep-deprivation/.

1. IvyPanda . "Problem of Sleep Deprivation." June 2, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sleep-deprivation/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Problem of Sleep Deprivation." June 2, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/sleep-deprivation/.

Sleep quality and sleep deprivation: relationship with academic performance in university students during examination period

• Original Article
• Open access
• Published: 10 April 2023
• Volume 21 , pages 377–383, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

• Maria Suardiaz-Muro   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8104-5723 1 , 7 ,
• Manuel Ortega-Moreno 2 ,
• Miguel Morante-Ruiz 3 ,
• Manuel Monroy 4 ,
• Miguel A. Ruiz 4 ,
• Pilar Martín-Plasencia 5 &
• Antonio Vela-Bueno 6  

25k Accesses

4 Citations

6 Altmetric

Explore all metrics

The beginning of the university brings together maturational, psychosocial and academic changes that make university students more prone to suffer from insufficient or poor quality sleep, which can negatively influence their academic performance. The period of taking exams is a key part of the academic year. However, there are few studies that analyze sleep during this period of time. Our aim is to study the association of sleep quality and sleep deprivation with academic performance during the examination period. A descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study was carried out with the participation of 640 subjects in the first three years of five faculties belonging to the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The instrument used consisted of a questionnaire that included sociodemographic and academic data, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Epworth Sleepiness Scale and information about the academic performance. During the examination period, a positive association was found between sleep quality and academic performance. University students slept less than desired, both on weekdays and weekends, and the sleep debt during the week was associated with a worse students’ perception of their academic performance. In total, 61.3% of the students believed that their performance would improve by getting more sleep. In addition, low drowsiness and napping were also found. In conclusion, during periods of greater academic demand, an insufficient sleep and poor quality is commonly observed, affecting negatively to their academic performance. Actually, about 2/3 of our subjects believed that their performance would improve by getting more sleep.

Similar content being viewed by others

Relationship between sleep habits and academic performance in university Nursing students

Association Between Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Factors, Academic Performance and Health

Good sleep quality is associated with better academic performance among sudanese medical students.

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Introduction

The beginning of the university years is associated with an increased risk of having problems with regularity, duration, and quality of sleep, which in many cases result in an insufficient sleep. The most obvious consequence is excessive daytime sleepiness [ 1 , 2 ]. Taking into account the essential role of sleep in the general homeostasis, such problems may result, among others, in a poor daytime functioning and negatively impact over the academic performance (AP) [ 3 , 4 ].

Two types of factors contribute to the above mentioned sleep problems: general and specific. Among the general factors there are those of a biological nature, associated with the maturational changes of the life cycle [ 5 ], and those of a psychosocial nature, such as the ones linked to the processes of individuation and socialization [ 2 ]. On the other hand, specific factors include academic demands [ 5 ].

In the last decades, there has been increasing interest in the relationship between sleep and AP in university students. Generally speaking, it appears to be a relationship between inadequate, insufficient or irregular sleep and AP [ 3 , 4 , 6 ]. The majority of studies refer to the entire academic year while a few take into account the period prior to exams or exam days, which involves stressful situations [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ].

The purpose of this paper is to understand the effect of quantity and quality of sleep of university students during the period of preparation for and taking final exams and to determine its influence on students' perception of their AP.

Objectives and hypotheses

Objectives:

To study the relationship between sleep quality, as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and AP.

To identify the PSQI components that are related to AP.

To study the influence of sleep deprivation on AP.

Hypothesis:

Sleep quality is positively related to AP.

Being a good sleeper (PSQI ≤ 5) is associated with better AP.

PSQI components contribute differentially to AP.

Partial sleep deprivation is negatively related to good AP.

Materials and methods

Descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study. Subjects were randomly selected, by invitation to participate in the study.

Inclusion criteria:

Students of the Autónoma University of Madrid (UAM) (Public University ranked fourth in the 2023 ranking of Spanish universities).

They belonged to five faculties representative of different fields of study: Sciences (Mathematics and Physics), Medicine, Psychology, Law and Philosophy.

They were in the first three academic years, which are those that require the greatest effort to adapt to the new environment.

Subjects from 18 to 26 years of age, age typical of university studies.

Exclusion criteria:

Subjects who were working at the same time as studying.

The instrument consisted of a computerized survey form developed by the authors using Google Drive ® software, which included validated scales and questionnaires. It was sent to the institutional mail of the target subjects during the period of the final exams of the course (May and June). All subjects gave informed consent.

The study was approved by the UAM research ethics committee. The information was collected guaranteeing confidentiality and anonymity in accordance with current national law (LOPD15/1999).

The following variables were measured:

Sociodemographic: age and sex.

Anthropometric: weight and height.

Academic: faculty, course and shift class schedule.

Sleep habits: bedtime, waking time and rising time, sleep latency and napping were collected. In addition, subjects reported the hours they thought they had slept each night (item 4 of the PSQI) and the hours of sleep they would like to sleep.

Sleep debt: this concept has been defined and used by several authors as the discrepancy between self-reported ideal sleep time and real sleep time [ 13 , 14 ]. Therefore, from the sleep habits subset of variables previously indicated, we calculated sleep debt as the difference between the hours of sleep that subjects reported sleeping each night (item 4 of the PSQI) and their reported desired sleep.

Sleep quality: the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index [ 15 , 16 ] was used. It consists of 19 self-administered items that provide a total score on sleep quality during the last month, ranging from 0 to 21. Lower scores indicate better sleep quality. The cut-off point for being a good sleeper is a score of less or equal five. It also provides information on seven components: subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, hypnotic medication usage, and daytime dysfunction.

Daytime sleepiness: the most widely used scale for measuring daytime sleepiness, the Epwoth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) [ 17 , 18 ], was used. It consists of 8 self-applied items that assess the likelihood of falling asleep in different situations. The overall score ranges from 0 to 24. The higher the score, the greater the degree of daytime sleepiness, with excessive daytime sleepiness defined at an overall score bigger than ten.

Stimulant beverages intake: it was assessed by asking the subjects how often they drank such beverages, according to the following categories: none, ocasionnally, daily, more than one a day.

Academic performance: consists of two questions with a Likert-type response format in which information is collected on the student's self-perception of: (a) his/her AP (How do you think your AP is: very bad, bad, fair, normal, good and very good), (b) the link between this and his/her sleep (Do you think your AP would improve if you slept more? YES/NO/sleep enough).

We assessed AP as judged by the students themselves. This was decided based on several considerations:

Different teachers use different strategies for measuring it.

Differences among academic topics (eg.: mathematical vs. verbal contents).

Differences among schools (eg: literary vs technical). It is known that each faculty has developed over time their own way of assessing performance and it is difficult to compare values obtained from different schools. This is even more evident in countries like Spain where assessment is made based on typical performance (with a cut-point decided by the teacher) and there is no tradition in using normative assessment (based on the distribution of class-room scores).

Also, the workload and academic demands vary among different type of schools and this has an impact on the differences regarding sleeping patterns and habits.

This approach based on self assessment has been adopted nowadays in clinical studies [ 19 ].

Statistical analyses

In order to homogenize the sample and reduce possible selection biases, criteria for inclusion and exclusion of subjects were determined. For reasons of size of some subgroups, the analyses were performed by grouping the categories of the dependent variable (AP) into "poor", "normal" and "good". The negative categories (very poor, poor and fair) were grouped as "poor AP" and the positive categories (good and very good) as "good AP".

Frequencies and percentages were used to describe categorical variables, and Pearson's chi-square and adjusted standardized residuals were used for comparisons. Means and standard deviations were used to describe quantitative variables (unless otherwise specified) and comparisons were made using t-tests, in the case of two groups, or fixed-effect ANOVA with multiple comparisons, adjusted by the Bonferroni procedure. Statistically significant differences were associated to an alpha level of 5% ( p  < 0.05). IBM SPSS Statistics version 26 software was used to perform the analyses.

Sample description

A total of 640 subjects, ranging in age from 18 to 23 years (19.78 ± 1.25) completed the survey. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the subjects.

Relationship between sleep variables and academic performance

Sleep quality showed significant differences between the three AP groups ( F  = 17.804, p  < 0.001; see Table 2 ). Higher overall scores on the PSQI, indicating worse sleep quality, were associated with worse AP (and vice versa). The categorization of subjects into good/poor sleepers also showed significant association with AP ( χ 2  = 0.191, p  < 0.001). Among the good sleepers, a higher percentage of students with good AP was found than in the two other groups in both separately or added together.

The sleep quality components showed significant differences with respect to the AP groups, particularly the components of: subjective sleep quality ( F  = 19.03, p  < 0.001), sleep duration ( F  = 8.54, p  < 0.001), sleep efficiency ( F  = 10.64, p  < 0.001), sleep disturbances ( F  = 3.84, p  = 0.022) and daytime dysfunction ( F  = 16.41, p  < 0.001). Sleep latency ( F  = 1.41, p  = 0.114) and hypnotic medication use ( F  = 1.08, p  = 0.34) showed no association.

Sleep deprivation variables showed that weekday sleep debt was associated with a worse AP ( F  = 3.77, p  = 0.024; see Table 3 ). We observed significant differences between the AP groups and students' estimation of the influence of sleep on their AP ( χ 2  = 16.9, p  < 0.001). In all the three performance groups, a higher percentage of subjects believed that their performance accomplishment would improve by getting more sleep than the percentage of those who did not believe so or those who felt they got enough sleep. In total, 61.3% responded affirmatively to the question about the influence of sleep on their AP, 15.6% belonged to the group with a poor perception of AP, and 18.8% and 26.9% to the normal and to the good perception group, respectively.

Our results, like those of other authors [ 7 , 12 ], indicate that during the exam period of time, the percentage of students who sleep poorly is higher than those who sleep well. Most studies show that better sleep quality is associated with a better AP [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]. We found that, during final exams, there is a positive association between both variables, indicating that as sleep quality improves, the student's perception of their AP improves as well. These results are consistent with those of other authors [ 7 , 10 , 11 ]. Ahrberg et al. [ 7 ], studied this association in three different moments of the course: during the semester, the pre-exam period and the post-exam period, finding an association between AP and sleep quality only in the pre-exam period.

Five components of the PSQI showed significant association between sleep quality and AP: subjective sleep quality, sleep duration, sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances and daytime dysfunction. Other studies also found this association [ 20 , 22 , 24 , 26 , 27 ]. Our study has not demonstrated association with AP in the components of sleep latency and hypnotic medication use. In the literature it is shown that the data regarding both components are controversial [ 24 , 26 ].

Our results suggest that students sleep on average less than desired, both on weekdays and on weekends. The literature collects few studies that include student self-perception of getting sufficient sleep [ 28 , 29 , 30 ].

Increased sleep debt on weekdays worsens perception on AP. In contrast, on the weekend, we found no significant differences between the three performance groups. This can be explained by the fact that students during the exam period organize their schedules in a more demanding manner during the week. However, at the weekend they tend to recover the sleep debt accumulated during the week. Bahammam et al. [ 28 ] obtained results similar to the data presented in this work. In their study, the proportion of students who considered getting enough sleep was higher in students who had better AP. Perception of sufficient sleep was one of the significant predictors of AP.

The most obvious consequence of inadequate sleep in terms of duration, quality and regularity is daytime sleepiness [ 2 ]. In our work the presence of sleepiness (18%) is lower than in other similar studies, ranging from 28.7% to 52% [ 22 , 25 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. We didn´t find any association between daytime sleepiness and stimulant beverages.

Most research that has studied the influence of daytime sleepiness on AP suggests a negative influence [ 22 , 28 , 31 ]. However, there are studies that have not demonstrated an association between the two variables [ 25 , 32 ]. In the present work, sleepiness showed no significant association with AP. Students showed poor sleep quality and insufficient sleep, yet they did not present daytime manifestations of excessive sleepiness. This could be explained by the increased hyperarousal associated with the exam period, which could counteract and avoid the expression of sleepiness.

The most common way to cope with daytime sleepiness caused by insufficient nighttime sleep is napping. In most of the studies in the literature, the percentage of students who reported napping at least once a week at some time during the day was higher than those who reported never or sporadic napping [ 23 , 25 , 31 , 33 , 35 , 36 ]. Only a few studies have shown that the percentage of students who reported napping was lower than those who did not [ 30 , 37 ]. Only Alqarni et al. [ 38 ] included in their study a question about the tendency of students to nap during the final exam period, finding that the percentage who reported not napping was higher than those who did. In our study we found similar results. Thus, 64.3% of the students indicated that they did not nap. A role for the aforementioned hyperarousal could explain this finding.

There are few existing studies in the literature that include aspects such as student's knowledge or self-perception of the contribution of sleep in AP [ 21 , 29 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 39 ]. These studies use different approaches. Gomes et al. [ 21 ] analyzed variables associated with a perception of greater impact of sleep on AP. Gikunda et al. [ 39 ] asked subjects to indicate their degree of agreement with statements about the impact of sleep on AP. Others have asked subjects about the number of hours they consider necessary for better AP [ 35 , 36 ]. Some studies have analyzed whether subjects consider their performance on an exam to be influenced by sleep [ 29 , 38 ]. Thus, in the study by Kazim & Abrar [ 29 ] 36.5% reported that their performance was affected by inadequate sleep. Alqarni et al. [ 38 ] included items asking students about what they thought their AP would be, depending on if they slept poorly and if they slept well. The percentage of students who answered that their performance would be poor or very poor was 45.8% if the first case and 2.3% in the second case. In our study we asked students to indicate what they thought their AP would be like if they slept more. About 61% considered that their AP was affected by sleep indicating that it would improve if they slept more.

We assume that our work has some limitations. On the one hand, the selection of the subjects was made by invitation to participate in the study, which may elicit the collaboration of subjects particularly interested in the subject. On the other hand, the use of self-report measures in data collection implies a certain subjectivity in the responses. Another limitation is that there could be mediating variables in the relationship between sleep and AP that have not been taken into account. We lack information about sleep dirsorders because this is not a clinical study so we can not exclude the posiblilty of some type of influence of those disorders on our results. Although no subject recognized to suffer any relevant pathology, we cannot rule out that they don’t suffer any condition interfering in our results. Other conditions involving hyperarousal, such as stress, depression and anxiety, could be influencing our results too. In addition, the study design does not allow causal relationships to be established. Finally, the findings obtained in the students of the first three years and five Faculties cannot be generalized to other populations.

The results of our study show that in a period of greater academic demand, such as the one of final exams, the sleep of university students is insufficient and of poor quality, negatively affecting their AP. Actually, about 2/3 of our subjects believed that their performance would improve by getting more sleep.

Our results stress the importance of obtaining an adequate amount of good quality sleep to performe well. Education about this issue is crucial for making students, teachers and society in general aware of the contribution of sleep to the general homeostasis and health.

Hershner S, Chervin R. Causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students. Nat Sci Sleep. 2014. https://doi.org/10.2147/NSS.S62907 .

Article   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Millman RP. Working group on sleepiness in adolescents/young adults & AAP committee on adolescence excessive sleepiness in adolescents and young adults: causes, consequences, and treatment strategies. Pediatrics. 2005. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2005-0772 .

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Hershner S. Sleep and academic performance: measuring the impact of sleep. Curr Opin Behav Sci. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2019.11.009 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Suardiaz-Muro M, Morante-Ruiz M, Ortega-Moreno M, et al. Sueño y rendimiento académico en estudiantes universitarios: Revisión sistemática (in Spanish). Revista de Neurología. 2020. https://doi.org/10.33588/rn.7102.2020015 .

Vela-Bueno A, Fernández-Mendoza J, Olavarrieta-Bernardino S. Sleep patterns in the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Sleep Med Clin. 2009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsmc.2008.12.003 .

Piro RS, Alhakem SSM, Azzez SS, Abdulah DM. Prevalence of sleep disorders and their impact on academic performance in medical students/University of Duhok. Sleep Biol Rhythms. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-017-0134-6 .

Ahrberg K, Dresler M, Niedermaier S, et al. The interaction between sleep quality and academic performance. J Psychiatr Res. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.09.008 .

Genzel L, Ahrberg K, Roselli C, et al. Sleep timing is more important than sleep length or quality for medical school performance. Chronobiol Int. 2013. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2012.763132 .

Haraszti RÁ, Ella K, Gyöngyösi N, et al. Social jetlag negatively correlates with academic performance in undergraduates. Chronobiol Int. 2014. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2013.879164 .

Flueckiger L, Lieb R, Meyer AH, Mata J. How health behaviors relate to academic performance via affect: an intensive longitudinal study. PLoS ONE. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0111080 .

Flueckiger L, Lieb R, Meyer AH, et al. Day to day variations in health and daily functioning: two intensive longitudinal studies. J Behav Med. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-016-9787-x .

Satti G, Alsaaid H, Nabil N, et al. The prevalence of sleep problems and its impact on sleep quality and academic performance. Merit Res J. 2015;3(2):126–31.

Google Scholar  

Okajima I, Komada Y, Ito W, Inoue Y. Sleep debt and social jetlag associated with sleepiness, mood, and work performance among workers in Japan. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18062908 .

Vela-Bueno A, Fernandez-Mendoza J, Olavarrieta-Bernardino S, Vgontzas AN, Bixler EO, de la Cruz-Troca JJ, Rodriguez-Muñoz A, Oliván-Palacios J. Sleep and behavioral correlates of napping among young adults: a survey of first-year university students in Madrid, Spain. J Am Coll Health. 2008. https://doi.org/10.3200/JACH.57.2.150-158 .

Buysse DJ, Reynolds CF III, Monk TH, et al. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index: a new instrument for psychiatric practice and research. Psychiatry Res. 1989. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1781(89)90047-4 .

Royuela Rico A, Macías FJ. Propiedades clinimétricas de la versión castellana del Cuestionario de Pittsburgh (in Spanish). Vigilia-Sueño. 1997;9(2):81–94.

Johns MW. A new method for measuring daytime sleepiness: the epworth sleepiness scale. Sleep. 1991. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/14.6.540 .

Izquierdo-Vicario Y, Ramos-Platón MJ, Conesa-Peraleja D, Lozano-Parra AB, Espinar-Sierra J. Epworth sleepiness scale in a sample of the Spanish population. Sleep. 1997. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/20.8.676 .

Bulpitt CJ. Quality of life as an outcome measure. Postgrad Med J. 1997. https://doi.org/10.1136/pgmj.73.864.613 .

Baert S, Omey E, Verhaest D, Vermeir A. Mister sandman, bring me good marks! on the relationship between sleep quality and academic achievement. Soc Sci Med. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.02.011 .

Gomes AA, Tavares J, de Azevedo MHP. Sleep and academic performance in undergraduates: a multi-measure, multi-predictor approach. Chronobiol Int. 2011. https://doi.org/10.3109/07420528.2011.606518 .

Machado-Duque ME, Chabur JEE, Machado-Alba JE. Somnolencia diurna excesiva, mala calidad del sueño y bajo rendimiento académico en estudiantes de medicina (in Spanish). Revista Colombiana de Psiquiatría. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcp.2015.04.002 .

Rasekhi S, Pour Ashouri F, Pirouzan A. Effects of sleep quality on the academic performance of undergraduate medical students. Health Scope. 2016. https://doi.org/10.17795/jhealthscope-31641 .

Lemma Y, Berhane S, Worku A, et al. Good quality sleep is associated with better academic performance among university students in Ethiopia. Sleep Breath. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-013-0874-8 .

Yeung W, Chung K, Cy CT. Sleep–wake habits, excessive daytime sleepiness and academic performance among medical students in Hong Kong. Biol Rhythm Res. 2008. https://doi.org/10.1080/09291010701425124 .

Mirghani HO, Mohammed OS, Almurtadha YM, Ahmed MS. Good sleep quality is associated with better academic performance among Sudanese medical students. BMC Res Notes. 2015. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-015-1712-9 .

Wong ML, Lau EYY, Wan JHY, et al. The interplay between sleep and mood in predicting academic functioning, physical health and psychological health: a longitudinal study. J Psychosom Res. 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2012.08.014 .

Bahammam AS, Alaseem AM, Alzakri AA, et al. The relationship between sleep and wake habits and academic performance in medical students: a cross-sectional study. BMC Med Educ. 2012. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-12-61 .

Kazim M, Abrar A. Sleep patterns and academic performance in students of a medical college in Pakistan. KUST Med J. 2011;3(2):57–60.

Valic M, Pecotic R, Lusic L, et al. The relationship between sleep habits and academic performance in dental students in Croatia. Eur J Dent Educ. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1111/eje.12081 .

Abdulghani HM, Alrowais NA, Bin-Saad NS, et al. Sleep disorder among medical students: Relationship to their academic performance. Med Teach. 2012. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2012.656749 .

Al-Zahrani JM, Aldossari KK, Abdulmajeed I, et al. Daytime sleepiness and academic performance among medical students. Health Sci J. 2016;10(3):1–5.

ElArab HE, Rabie MA, Ali DH. Sleep behavior and sleep problems among a medical student sample in relation to academic performance: a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. Middle East Curr Psychiatry. 2014. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.XME.0000444452.76469.05 .

Singh R, Sharma R, Suri J, Das S. Impact of sleep patterns on mood and academic performance of medical students. Indian J Sleep Med. 2009. https://doi.org/10.5005/ijsm-4-2-61 .

Hamed H, Miskey A, Alkurd R, et al. The effect of sleeping pattern on the academic performance of undergraduate medical students at Ajman university of science and technology. J Pharm Pharm Sci. 2015;4(4):18–21.

Siraj HH, Salam A, Roslan R, et al. Sleep pattern and academic performance of undergraduate medical students at university Kebangsaan, Malaysia. J Appl Pharm Sci. 2014. https://doi.org/10.7324/JAPS.2014.41209 .

Eliasson AH, Lettieri CJ, Eliasson AH. Early to bed, early to rise! sleep habits and academic performance in college students. Sleep Breath. 2010. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-009-0282-2 .

Alqarni AB, Alzahrani NJ, Alsofyani MA, Almalki AA. The interaction between sleep quality and academic performance among the medical students in Taif university. Egyptian J Hosp Med. 2018. https://doi.org/10.12816/0045053 .

Gikunda RM, Abura GO, Kiriungi L, Muchiri JM. The effect of sleep quantity on performance of students in public universities, Kenya. Merit Res J Educ Rev. 2014. https://doi.org/10.15515/ijert.0976-4089.5.2.68-73 .

Download references

Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. The study was conducted without any grants or funding.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Biological and Health Psychology, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), Madrid, Spain

Maria Suardiaz-Muro

Psychiatry Service, Hospital Universitario de Móstoles, Madrid, Spain

Manuel Ortega-Moreno

Internal Medicine Service, Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain

Miguel Morante-Ruiz

Department of Social Psychology and Methodology, School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Manuel Monroy & Miguel A. Ruiz

Department of Biological and Health Psychology. School of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

Pilar Martín-Plasencia

Department of Psychiatry, Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, USA

Antonio Vela-Bueno

Department of Neuropsychology. Rehabilitation Service, Fundación Instituto San José, Madrid, Spain

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Suardiaz-Muro .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Suardiaz-Muro, M., Ortega-Moreno, M., Morante-Ruiz, M. et al. Sleep quality and sleep deprivation: relationship with academic performance in university students during examination period. Sleep Biol. Rhythms 21 , 377–383 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-023-00457-1

Download citation

Received : 05 September 2022

Accepted : 06 March 2023

Published : 10 April 2023

Issue Date : July 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s41105-023-00457-1

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Academic performance
• Daytime sleepiness
• Sleep deprivation
• Sleep quality
• University students
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Open access
• Published: 01 October 2019

Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students

• Kana Okano 1 ,
• Jakub R. Kaczmarzyk 1 ,
• Neha Dave 2 ,
• John D. E. Gabrieli 1 &
• Jeffrey C. Grossman   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1281-2359 3  

npj Science of Learning volume  4 , Article number:  16 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

446k Accesses

126 Citations

1746 Altmetric

Metrics details

Although numerous survey studies have reported connections between sleep and cognitive function, there remains a lack of quantitative data using objective measures to directly assess the association between sleep and academic performance. In this study, wearable activity trackers were distributed to 100 students in an introductory college chemistry class (88 of whom completed the study), allowing for multiple sleep measures to be correlated with in-class performance on quizzes and midterm examinations. Overall, better quality, longer duration, and greater consistency of sleep correlated with better grades. However, there was no relation between sleep measures on the single night before a test and test performance; instead, sleep duration and quality for the month and the week before a test correlated with better grades. Sleep measures accounted for nearly 25% of the variance in academic performance. These findings provide quantitative, objective evidence that better quality, longer duration, and greater consistency of sleep are strongly associated with better academic performance in college. Gender differences are discussed.

Similar content being viewed by others

Effect of sleep and mood on academic performance—at interface of physiology, psychology, and education

A 4-year longitudinal study investigating the relationship between flexible school starts and grades

Macro and micro sleep architecture and cognitive performance in older adults

Introduction.

The relationship between sleep and cognitive function has been a topic of interest for over a century. Well-controlled sleep studies conducted with healthy adults have shown that better sleep is associated with a myriad of superior cognitive functions, 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 including better learning and memory. 7 , 8 These effects have been found to extend beyond the laboratory setting such that self-reported sleep measures from students in the comfort of their own homes have also been found to be associated with academic performance. 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13

Sleep is thought to play a crucial and specific role in memory consolidation. Although the exact mechanisms behind the relationship between sleep, memory, and neuro-plasticity are yet unknown, the general understanding is that specific synaptic connections that were active during awake-periods are strengthened during sleep, allowing for the consolidation of memory, and synaptic connections that were inactive are weakened. 5 , 14 , 15 Thus, sleep provides an essential function for memory consolidation (allowing us to remember what has been studied), which in turn is critical for successful academic performance.

Beyond the effects of sleep on memory consolidation, lack of sleep has been linked to poor attention and cognition. Well-controlled sleep deprivation studies have shown that lack of sleep not only increases fatigue and sleepiness but also worsens cognitive performance. 2 , 3 , 16 , 17 In fact, the cognitive performance of an individual who has been awake for 17 h is equivalent to that exhibited by one who has a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%. 1 Outside of a laboratory setting, studies examining sleep in the comfort of peoples’ own homes via self-report surveys have found that persistently poor sleepers experience significantly more daytime difficulties in regards to fatigue, sleepiness, and poor cognition compared with persistently good sleepers. 18

Generally, sleep is associated with academic performance in school. Sleep deficit has been associated with lack of concentration and attention during class. 19 While a few studies report null effects, 20 , 21 most studies looking at the effects of sleep quality and duration on academic performance have linked longer and better-quality sleep with better academic performance such as school grades and study effort. 4 , 6 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 Similarly, sleep inconsistency plays a part in academic performance. Sleep inconsistency (sometimes called “social jet lag”) is defined by inconsistency in sleep schedule and/or duration from day to day. It is typically seen in the form of sleep debt during weekdays followed by oversleep on weekends. Sleep inconsistency tends to be greatest in adolescents and young adults who stay up late but are constrained by strict morning schedules. Adolescents who experience greater sleep inconsistency perform worse in school. 28 , 29 , 30 , 31

Although numerous studies have investigated the relationship between sleep and students’ academic performance, these studies utilized subjective measures of sleep duration and/or quality, typically in the form of self-report surveys; very few to date have used objective measures to quantify sleep duration and quality in students. One exception is a pair of linked studies that examined short-term benefits of sleep on academic performance in college. Students were incentivized with offers of extra credit if they averaged eight or more hours of sleep during final exams week in a psychology class 32 or five days leading up to the completion of a graphics studio final assignment. 33 Students who averaged eight or more hours of sleep, as measured by a wearable activity tracker, performed significantly better on their final psychology exams than students who chose not to participate or who slept less than eight hours. In contrast, for the graphics studio final assignments no difference was found in performance between students who averaged eight or more hours of sleep and those who did not get as much sleep, although sleep consistency in that case was found to be a factor.

Our aim in this study was to explore how sleep affects university students’ academic performance by objectively and ecologically tracking their sleep throughout an entire semester using Fitbit—a wearable activity tracker. Fitbit uses a combination of the wearer’s movement and heart-rate patterns to estimate the duration and quality of sleep. For instance, to determine sleep duration, the device measures the time in which the wearer has not moved, in combination with signature sleep movements such as rolling over. To determine sleep quality, the Fitbit device measures the wearer’s heart-rate variability which fluctuates during transitions between different stages of sleep. Although the specific algorithms that calculate these values are proprietary to Fitbit, they have been found to accurately estimate sleep duration and quality in normal adult sleepers without the use of research-grade sleep staging equipment. 34 By collecting quantitative sleep data over the course of the semester on nearly 100 students, we aimed to relate objective measures of sleep duration, quality, and consistency to academic performance from test to test and overall in the context of a real, large university college course.

A secondary aim was to understand gender differences in sleep and academic performance. Women outperform men in collegiate academic performance in most subjects 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 and even in online college courses. 39 Most of the research conducted to understand this female advantage in school grades has examined gender differences in self-discipline, 40 , 41 , 42 and none to date have considered gender differences in sleep as a mediating factor on school grades. There are inconsistencies in the literature on gender differences in sleep in young adults. While some studies report that females get more quantity 43 but worse quality sleep compared with males, 43 , 44 other studies report that females get better quality sleep. 45 , 46 In the current study, we aim to see whether we would observe a female advantage in grades and clarify how sleep contributes to gender differences.

Bedtime and wake-up times

On average, students went to bed at 1:54 a.m. (Median = 1:47 a.m., Standard Deviation (SD) of all bedtime samples = 2 h 11 min, SD of mean bedtime per participant = 1 h) and woke up at 9:17 a.m. (Median = 9:12 a.m., SD of all wake-up time samples = 2 h 2 min; SD of mean wake-up time per participant = 54 min). The data were confirmed to have Gaussian distribution using the Shapiro–Wilks normality test. We conducted an ANOVA with the overall score (sum of all grade-relevant quizzes and exams—see “Procedure”) as the dependent variable and bedtime (before or after median) and wake-up time (before or after median) as the independent variables. We found a main effect of bedtime ( F (1, 82) = 6.45, p  = 0.01), such that participants who went to bed before median bedtime had significantly higher overall score ( X  = 77.25%, SD = 13.71%) compared with participants who went to bed after median bedtime ( X  = 70.68%, SD = 11.01%). We also found a main effect of wake-up time ( F (1, 82) = 6.43, p  = 0.01), such that participants who woke up before median wake-up time had significantly higher overall score ( X  = 78.28%, SD = 9.33%) compared with participants who woke up after median wake-up time ( X  = 69.63%, SD = 14.38%), but found no interaction between bedtime and wake-up time ( F (1, 82) = 0.66, p  = 0.42).

A Pearson’s product-moment correlation between average bedtime and overall score revealed a significant and negative correlation ( r (86) = −0.45, p  < 0.0001), such that earlier average bedtime was associated with a higher overall score. There was a significant and negative correlation between average wake-up time and overall score ( r (86) = −0.35, p  < 0.001), such that earlier average wake-up time was associated with a higher overall score. There was also a significant and positive correlation between average bedtime and average wake-up time (r (86) = 0.68, p  < 0.0001), such that students who went to bed earlier tended to also wake up earlier.

Sleep duration, quality, and consistency in relation to academic performance

Overall, the mean duration of sleep for participants throughout the entire semester was 7 h 8 min (SD of all sleep samples = 1 h 48 min, SD of mean sleep duration per participant = 41 min). There was a significant positive correlation between mean sleep duration throughout the semester (sleep duration) and overall score ( r (86) = 0.38, p  < 0.0005), indicating that a greater amount of sleep was associated with a higher overall score (Fig. 1a ). Similarly, there was a significant positive correlation between mean sleep quality throughout the semester (Sleep Quality) and Overall Score ( r (86) = 0.44, p  < 0.00005). Sleep inconsistency was defined for each participant as the standard deviation of the participant’s daily sleep duration in minutes so that a larger standard deviation indicated greater sleep inconsistency. There was a significant negative correlation between sleep inconsistency and overall score ( r (86) = −0.36, p   <  0.001), indicating that the greater inconsistency in sleep duration was associated with a lower overall score (Fig. 1b ).

Correlations between sleep measures and overall score. a Average daily hours slept (sleep duration) vs. overall score for the semester. b Standard deviation of average daily hours of sleep (sleep inconsistency) vs. overall score in class

Timing of sleep and its relation to academic performance

To understand sleep and its potential role in memory consolidation, we examined the timing of sleep as it related to specific assessments. All Pearson correlations with three or more comparisons were corrected for multiple comparisons using false discovery rate. 47

Night before assessments

We conducted a correlation between sleep quality the night before a midterm and respective midterm scores as well as sleep duration the night before a midterm and respective scores. There were no significant correlations with sleep duration or sleep quality for all three midterms (all r s < 0.20, all p s > 0.05). Similar analyses for sleep duration and sleep quality the night before respective quizzes revealed no correlations ( r s from 0.01 to 0.26, all p s > 0.05).

Week and month leading up to assessments

To understand the effect of sleep across the time period while course content was learned for an assessment, we examined average sleep measures during the 1 month leading up to the midterms. We found a significant positive correlation between average sleep duration over the month leading up to scores on each midterm ( r s from 0.25 to 0.34, all p s < 0.02). Similar analyses for average sleep duration over one week leading up to respective quizzes were largely consistent with those of midterms, with significant correlations on 3 of 8 quizzes (rs from 0.3 to 0.4, all p s < 0.05) and marginal correlations on an additional 3 quizzes (rs from 0.25 to 0.27, all p s < 0.08).

There was a significant and positive correlation between sleep quality scores averaged over the month leading up to each midterm for all three midterms ( r s from 0.21 to 0.38, all p s < 0.05). Similar analyses for average Sleep Quality over one week leading up to respective quizzes revealed a significant correlation on 1 of 8 quizzes ( r (86) = 0.42, p  < 0.005) and marginal correlations on 3 quizzes ( r s from 0.25 to 0.27, all p s < 0.08).

Variance of assessment performance accounted for by sleep measures

In order to calculate how much of the variance on assessment performance was accounted for by the sleep measures, we conducted a stepwise regression on overall score using three regressors: sleep duration, sleep quality, and sleep inconsistency. The relative importance of each variable was calculated using the relaimpo package in R 48 to understand individual regressor’s contribution to the model, which is not always clear from the breakdown of model R 2 when regressors are correlated. We found a significant regression ( F (3,84) = 8.95, p  = .00003), with an R 2 of 0.24. Students’ predicted overall score was equal to 77.48 + 0.21 (sleep duration) + 19.59 (Sleep Quality) – 0.45 (sleep inconsistency). While sleep inconsistency was the only significant individual predictor of overall score ( p  = 0.03) in this analysis, we found that 24.44% of variance was explained by the three regressors. The relative importance of these metrics were 7.16% sleep duration, 9.68% sleep quality, and 7.6% sleep inconsistency.

Gender differences

Females had better Sleep Quality ( t (88) = 2.63, p  = 0.01), and less sleep inconsistency ( t (88) = 2.18, p  = 0.03) throughout the semester compared with males, but the two groups experienced no significant difference in sleep duration ( t (88) = 1.03, p  = 0.3). Sleep duration and sleep quality were significantly correlated in both males ( r (41) = 0.85, p  < 0.00001) and females ( r (43) = 0.64, p  < 0.00001), but this correlation was stronger in males ( Z  = −2.25, p  = 0.02) suggesting that it may be more important for males to get a long-duration sleep in order to get good quality sleep. In addition, sleep inconsistency and sleep quality were significantly negatively correlated in males ( r (41) = −0.51, p  = 0.0005) but not in females ( r (43) = 0.29, p  > 0.05), suggesting that it may be more important for males to stick to a regular daily sleep schedule in order to get good quality sleep.

Females scored higher on overall score compared with males ( t (88) = −2.48, p  = 0.01), but a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) revealed that females and males did not perform significantly different on overall score when controlling for Sleep Quality, F (1, 85) = 2.22, p  = 0.14. Sleep inconsistency and overall score were negatively correlated in males ( r (41) = −0.44, p  = 0.003) but not in females ( r (43) = −0.13, p  = 0.39), suggesting that it is important for males to stick to a regular sleep schedule in order to perform well in academic performance but less so for females. No other gender differences were detected between other sleep measures and overall score.

This study found that longer sleep duration, better sleep quality, and greater sleep consistency were associated with better academic performance. A multiple linear regression revealed that these three sleep measures accounted for 24.44% of the variance in overall grade performance. Thus, there was a substantial association between sleep and academic performance. The present results correlating overall sleep quality and duration with academic performance are well aligned with previous studies 6 , 11 , 12 , 24 , 25 on the role of sleep on cognitive performance. Similarly, this study compliments the two linked studies that found longer sleep duration during the week before final exams 47 and consistent sleep duration five days prior to a final assignment 48 enhanced students’ performance. The present study, however, significantly extends our understanding of the relation between sleep and academic performance by use of multiple objective measures of sleep throughout an entire semester and academic assessments completed along the way.

The present study also provides new insights about the timing of the relation between sleep and academic performance. Unlike a prior study, 23 we did not find that sleep duration the night before an exam was associated with better test performance. Instead we found that both longer sleep duration and better sleep quality over the full month before a midterm were more associated with better test performance. Rather than the night before a quiz or exam, it may be more important to sleep well for the duration of the time when the topics tested were taught. The implications of these findings are that, at least in the context of an academic assessment, the role of sleep is crucial during the time the content itself is learned, and simply getting good sleep the night before may not be as helpful. The outcome that better “content-relevant sleep” leads to improved performance is supported by previous controlled studies on the role of sleep in memory consolidation. 14 , 15

Consistent with some previous research 45 , 46 female students tended to experience better quality sleep and with more consistency than male students. In addition, we found that males required a longer and more regular daily sleep schedule in order to get good quality sleep. This female advantage in academic performance was eliminated once sleep patterns were statistically equated, suggesting that it may be especially important to encourage better sleep habits in male students (although such habits may be helpful for all students).

Several limitations of the present study may be noted. First, the sleep quality measures were made with proprietary algorithms. There is an evidence that the use of cardiac, respiratory, and movement information from Fitbit devices can accurately estimate sleep stages, 32 but there is no published evidence that Fitbit’s 1~10 sleep quality scores represent a valid assessment of sleep quality. Second, the relation between sleep and academic performance may be moderated by factors that can affect sleep, such as stress, anxiety, motivation, personality traits, and gender roles. Establishing a causal relation between sleep and academic performance will require experimental manipulations in randomized controlled trials, but these will be challenging to conduct in the context of real education in which students care about their grades. Third, these findings occurred for a particular student population at MIT enrolled in a particular course, and future studies will need to examine the generalizability of these findings to other types of student populations and other kinds of classes.

In sum, this study provides evidence for a strong relation between sleep and academic performance using a quantifiable and objective measures of sleep quality, duration, and consistency in the ecological context of a live classroom. Sleep quality, duration, and consistency together accounted for a substantial amount (about a quarter) of the overall variance in academic performance.

Participants

One hundred volunteers (47 females) were selected from a subset of students who volunteered among 370 students enrolled in Introduction to Solid State Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to participate in the study. Participants were informed of the study and gave written consent obtained in accordance with the guidelines of and approved by the MIT Committee on the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects. Due to limitations in funding, we only had access to 100 Fitbit devices and could not enroll all students who volunteered; consequently, the first 100 participants to volunteer were selected. All participants were gifted a wearable activity tracker at the completion of the study in exchange for their participation. Seven participants were excluded from analysis because they failed to wear their activity tracker for more than 80% of the semester, three participants were excluded because they lost their wearable activity tracker, and another two participants were excluded because they completed less than 75% of the assessments in the class. Of the 88 participants who completed the study (45 females), 85 were freshmen, one was a junior and two were seniors (mean age = 18.19 years).

The Solid State Chemistry class is a single-semester class offered in the fall semester and geared toward freshmen students to satisfy MIT’s general chemistry requirement. The class consisted of weekly lectures by the professor and two weekly recitations led by 12 different teaching assistants (TAs). Each student was assigned to a specific recitation section that fit their schedule and was not allowed to attend other sections; therefore, each student had the same TA throughout the semester. Students took (1) weekly quizzes that tested knowledge on the content covered the week leading up to the quiz date, (2) three midterms that tested knowledge on the content covered in the 3–4 weeks leading up to the exam date, and (3) a final exam that tested content covered throughout the semester. Based on a one-way between subjects’ analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare the effect of teaching assistants (TAs) on overall grade, we found no significant differences in overall grade across the TAs (F (10, 77) = 1.82, p  = 0.07. (One TA was removed from the analysis because he only had one student who was participating in this study).

Participants were asked to wear an activity tracker for the entire duration of the semester without going below 80% usage each week. If 80% or more usage was not maintained, warning emails were sent at the end of that respective week. Participants were asked to return the device if they dipped below 80% usage more than three out of the 14 weeks of the semester. The average usage rate at the end of the semester for the 88 participants who completed the study was 89.4% (SD = 5.5%). The missing data appeared to be at random and were deleted prior to data analysis. As part of a separate research question, 22 of the 88 participants joined an intense cardiovascular exercise class for which they received separate physical education credit. These students performed similarly to the other 67 participants in terms of final class grade ( t (88) = 1.57, p  = 0.12), exercise amount (total amount of moderately and very active minutes on the wearable device) (t (88) = 0.59, p  = 0.56), sleep amount ( t (88) = 0.3, p  = 0.77), and sleep quality ( t (88) = 0.14, p  = 0.9), so they were included in all of the analyses.

Participants’ activities were tracked using a Fitbit Charge HR. Data from the device were recorded as follows: heart rate every 5 min; steps taken, distance traveled, floors climbed, calories burned and activity level measurements every 15 min; resting heart rate daily; and sleep duration and quality for every instance of sleep throughout the day. Sleep quality was determined using Fitbit’s proprietary algorithm that produces a value from 0 (poor quality) to 10 (good quality).

Assessments

Nine quizzes, three midterm examinations, and one final examination were administered throughout the 14-week class to assess the students’ academic achievement. The students’ cumulative class grade was made up of 25% for all nine quizzes (lowest quiz grade was dropped from the average), 15% for each midterm exam, and 30% for the final exam for a total of 100%.

At MIT, freshmen are graded on a Pass or No Record basis in all classes taken during their first semester. Therefore, all freshmen in this class needed a C- level or better (≥50%, no grading on a curve) to pass the class. A failing grade (a D or F grade) did not go on their academic record. All upperclassmen were given letter grades; A (≥85%), B (70–84%), C (50–69%), D (45–49%), F (≤44%). Because a large portion of the class had already effectively “passed” the class before taking Quiz 9 and the final exam, we excluded these two assessments from our analyses due to concerns about students’ motivation to perform their best. We calculated for each student an overall score defined as the sum of the eight quizzes and three midterms to summarize academic performance in the course.

Reporting summary

Further information on research design is available in the Nature Research Reporting Summary linked to this article.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Code availability

No custom codes were used in the analysis of this study

Dawson, D. & Reid, K. Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment. Nature 388 , 540–545 (1997).

Article   Google Scholar  

Lim, J. & Dinges, D. F. A meta-analysis of the impact of short-term sleep deprivation on cognitive variables. Psychol. Bull. 136 , 375–389 (2010).

Harrison, Y. & Horne, J. A. The impact of sleep deprivation on decision making: a review. J. Exp. Psychol. Appl. 6 , 236–249 (2000).

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Wagner, U., Gais, S., Haider, H., Verleger, R. & Born, J. Sleep inspires insight. Nature 427 , 352–355 (2004).

Walker, M. P. & Stickgold, R. Sleep, memory, and plasticity. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 57 , 139–166 (2006).

Wong, M. L. et al. The interplay between sleep and mood in predicting academic functioning, physical health and psychological health: a longitudinal study. J. Psychosom. Res. 74 , 271–277 (2013).

Diekelmann, S., Wilhelm, I. & Born, J. The whats and whens of sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Sleep. Med. Rev. 13 , 309–321 (2009).

Fogel, S. M., Smith, C. T. & Cote, K. A. Dissociable learning-dependent changes in REM and non-REM sleep in declarative and procedural memory systems. Behav. Brain Res. 180 , 48–61 (2007).

Eliasson, A. H. & Lettieri, C. J. Early to bed, early to rise! Sleep habits and academic performance in college students. Sleep. Breath. 14 , 71–75 (2010).

Gaultney, J. F. The prevalence of sleep disorders in college students: Impact on academic performance. J. Am. Coll. Health 59 , 91–97 (2010).

Gilbert, S. P. & Weaver, C. C. Sleep quality and academic performance in university students: A wake-up call for college psychologists. J. Coll. Stud. Psychother. 24 , 295–306 (2010).

Gomes, A. A., Tavares, J. & de Azevedo, M. H. P. Sleep and academic performance in undergraduates: A multi-measure, multi-predictor approach. Chronobiol. Int. 28 , 786–801 (2011).

Lemma, S., Berhane, Y., Worku, A., Gelaye, B. & Williams, M. A. Good quality sleep is associated with better academic performance among university students in Ethiopia. Sleep. Breath. 18 , 257–263 (2014).

Gilestro, G. F., Tononi, G. & Cirelli, C. Widespread changes in synaptic markers as a function of sleep and wakefulness in drosophila. Science 324 , 109–112 (2009).

Rasch, B. & Born, J. About sleep’s role in memory. Physiol. Rev. 93 , 681–766 (2013).

Alhola, P. & Polo-Kantola, P. Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance. Neuropsychiatr. Dis. Treat. 3 , 553–567 (2007).

PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Durmer, J. S. & Dinges, D. F. Neurocognitive consequences of sleep deprivation. Semin. Neurol. 25 , 117–129 (2005).

Alapin, I. et al. How is good and poor sleep in older adults and college students related to daytime sleepiness, fatigue, and ability to concentrate? J. Psychosom. Res. 49 , 381–390 (2000).

Orzech, K. M., Salafsky, D. B. & Hamilton, L. A. The state of sleep among college students at a large public university. J. Am. Coll. Health 59 , 612–619 (2011).

Eliasson, A., Eliasson, A., King, J., Gould, B. & Eliasson, A. Association of sleep and academic performance. Sleep. Breath. 6 , 45–48 (2002).

Johns, M. W., Dudley, H. A. & Masterton, J. P. The sleep habits, personality and academic performance of medical students. Med. Educ. 10 , 158–162 (1976).

Merikanto, I., Lahti, T., Puusniekka, R. & Partonen, T. Late bedtimes weaken school performance and predispose adolescents to health hazards. Sleep. Med. 14 , 1105–1111 (2013).

Zeek, M. L. et al. Sleep duration and academic performance among student pharmacists. Am. J. Pharm. Educ. 79 , 5–12 (2015).

Hartmann, M. E. & Prichard, J. R. Calculating the contribution of sleep problems to undergraduates’ academic success. Sleep. Health 4 , 463–471 (2018).

Mirghani, H. O., Mohammed, O. S., Almurtadha, Y. M. & Ahmed, M. S. Good sleep quality is associated with better academic performance among Sudanese medical students. BMC Res. Notes 8 , 706 (2015).

Onyper, S. V., Thacher, P. V., Gilbert, J. W. & Gradess, S. G. Class start times, Sleep, and academic performance in college: a path analysis. Chronobiol. Int. 29 , 318–335 (2012).

Ming, X. et al. Sleep insufficiency, sleep health problems and performance in high school students. Clin. Med. Insights Circ. Respir. Pulm. Med. 5 , 71–79 (2011).

Lee, Y. J., Park, J., Soohyun, K., Seong-jin, C. & Seog Ju, K. Academic performance among adolescents with behaviorally. J. Clin. Sleep. Med. 11 , 61–68 (2015).

Díaz-Morales, J. F. & Escribano, C. Social jetlag, academic achievement and cognitive performance: Understanding gender/sex differences. Chronobiol. Int. 32 , 822–831 (2015).

Raley, H., Naber, J., Cross, S. & Perlow, M. The impact of duration of sleep on academic performance in University students. Madr. J. Nurs. 1 , 11–18 (2016).

Haraszti, R. Á., Ella, K., Gyöngyösi, N., Roenneberg, T. & Káldi, K. Social jetlag negatively correlates with academic performance in undergraduates. Chronobiol. Int. 31 , 603–612 (2014).

Scullin, M. K. The eight hour sleep challenge during final exams week. Teach. Psychol. 46 , 55–63 (2018).

King, E., Mobley, C. & Scullin, M. K. The 8‐hour challenge: incentivizing sleep during end‐of‐term assessments. J. Inter. Des. 44 , 85–99 (2018).

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Beattie, Z. et al. Estimation of sleep stages using cardiac and accelerometer data from a wrist-worn device. Sleep 40 , A26–A26 (2017).

Clark, M. J. & Grandy, J. Sex differences in the academic performance of scholastic aptitude test takers. ETS Res. Rep. Ser. 2 , 1-27 (1984).

Google Scholar  

Kimball, M. M. A new perspective on women’s math achievement. Psychol. Bull. 105 , 198–214 (1989).

Mau, W.-C. & Lynn, R. Gender differences on the scholastic aptitude test, the American college test and college grades. Educ. Psychol. 21 , 133–136 (2001).

Willingham, W. W. & Cole, N. S. Gender and fair assessment . (Mahwah, NJ, US, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1997).

Volchok, E. Differences in the performance of male and female students in partially online courses at a community college. Community Coll . J . Res . Pract . 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2018.1556134 (2018).

Duckworth, A. L. et al. Will not want: self-control rather than motivation explains the female advantage in report card grades. Learn. Individ. Differ. 39 , 13–23 (2015).

Carvalho, R. G. G. Gender differences in academic achievement: The mediating role of personality. Pers. Individ. Differ. 94 , 54–58 (2016).

Duckworth, A. L. & Seligman, M. E. P. Self-discipline gives girls the edge: gender in self-discipline, grades, and achievement test scores. J. Educ. Psychol. 98 , 198–208 (2006).

Tsai, L. L. & Li, S. P. Sleep patterns in college students: Gender and grade differences. J. Psychosom. Res. 56 , 231–237 (2004).

Becker, S. P. et al. Sleep in a large, multi-university sample of college students: sleep problem prevalence, sex differences, and mental health correlates. Sleep Health 4 , 174–181 (2018).

Bixler, E. O. et al. Women sleep objectively better than men and the sleep of young women is more resilient to external stressors: effects of age and menopause. J. Sleep. Res. 18 , 221–228 (2009).

Mallampalli, M. P. & Carter, C. L. Exploring sex and gender differences in sleep health: a Society for Women’s Health Research Report. J. Women’s. Health 23 , 553–562 (2014).

Benjamini, Y. & Hochberg, Y. Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B (Methodol.) 57 , 289–300 (1995).

Grömping, U. Relative importance for linear regression in R: The package relaimpo. J. Stat. Softw. 17 , 1–27 (2015).

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Horace A. Lubin Fund in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering to J.C.G. and funding from MIT Integrated Learning Initiative to K.O. and J.R.K. The authors are grateful for many useful discussions with Carrie Moore and Matthew Breen at the Department of Athletics, Physical Education, and Recreation at MIT.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

MIT Integrated Learning Initiative, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

Kana Okano, Jakub R. Kaczmarzyk & John D. E. Gabrieli

Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, 02163, USA

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

Jeffrey C. Grossman

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

K.O. and J.C.G. conceived, designed, supervised, and analyzed the project. J.K. and N.D. helped analyze the data. The manuscript was written by K.O., J.D.E.G., and J.C.G.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey C. Grossman .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Reporting summary, rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Okano, K., Kaczmarzyk, J.R., Dave, N. et al. Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students. npj Sci. Learn. 4 , 16 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-019-0055-z

Download citation

Received : 20 March 2019

Accepted : 17 July 2019

Published : 01 October 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-019-0055-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Social isolation consequences: lessons from covid-19 pandemic in a context of dynamic lock-down in chile.

• Alessandra Patrono
• Stefano Renzetti
• Roberto G. Lucchini

BMC Public Health (2024)

Ontogeny and social context regulate the circadian activity patterns of Lake Malawi cichlids

• Aakriti Rastogi
• Alex C. Keene

Journal of Comparative Physiology B (2024)

The Effects of Pre-bedtime Blue-Light Exposure on Subjective Sleep Quality, Attention, and Work Efficiency in Men Students: A Pilot Study

• Takuya Uchiumi
• Masao Ishizawa
• Toshiaki Sato

Sleep and Vigilance (2024)

Time Management Disposition in Learning Motivation and Academic Performance of Lacquer Art Majors in Fujian, China

• Yuxuan Jiang
• Sri Azra Attan

SN Computer Science (2024)

From good sleep to health and to quality of life – a path analysis of determinants of sleep quality of working adults in Abu Dhabi

• Masood Badri
• Mugheer Alkhaili
• Asma Alrashdi

Sleep Science and Practice (2023)

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation Towards The Academic Performance Of Ustp- Oroquieta Students

• Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education (TURCOMAT) 12(10):412-419
• 12(10):412-419

• Northwestern Mindanao State College of Science& Technology

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations

• NOISE CONTROL ENG J

• M T Bianchi
• I O Medicine
• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

Contact | Patient Info | Foundation | AASM Engage JOIN Today   Login with CSICloud

• AASM Scoring Manual
• Artificial Intelligence
• COVID-19 Resources
• EHR Integration
• Emerging Technology
• Insomnia Toolkit for Clinicians
• Patient Information
• Practice Promotion Resources
• Provider Fact Sheets
• #SleepTechnology
• Telemedicine

• Annual Meeting
• Career Center
• Case Study of the Month
• Change Agents Submission Winners
• Compensation Survey
• Conference Support
• Continuing Medical Education (CME)
• Maintenance of Certification (MOC)
• State Sleep Societies
• Talking Sleep Podcast
• Young Investigators Research Forum (YIRF)

• Leadership Election
• Board Nomination Process
• Membership Directory
• Volunteer Opportunities
• International Assembly

• Accreditation News
• Accreditation Verification
• Accreditation: Contact Us
• Program Changes

AASM accreditation demonstrates a sleep medicine provider’s commitment to high quality, patient-centered care through adherence to these standards.

• AASM Social Media Ambassador
• Advertising
• Affiliated Sites
• Autoscoring Certification
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• IEP Sponsors
• Industry Programs
• Newsletters
• Patient Advocacy Roundtable
• President’s Report
• Social Media
• Strategic Plan
• Working at AASM
• Practice Standards
• Coding and Reimbursement
• Choose Sleep
• Advanced Practice Registered Nurses and Physician Assistants (APRN PA)
• Accredited Sleep Technologist Education Program (ASTEP)
• Inter-scorer Reliability (ISR)
• Coding Education Program (A-CEP)
• Individual Member – Benefits
• Individual Member – Categories
• Members-Only Resources
• Apply for AASM Fellow
• Individual Member – FAQs
• Facility Member – Benefits
• Facility Member – FAQs
• Sleep Team Assemblies
• Types of Accreditation
• Choose AASM Accreditation
• Special Application Types
• Apply or Renew
• Event Code of Conduct Policy
• Guiding Principles for Industry Support
• CMSS Financial Disclosure

College students: getting enough sleep is vital to academic success

WESTCHESTER , Ill. — With the semester drawing to a close, millions of college students are preparing to take their final exams. Unfortunately, research is increasingly showing that more and more students are not getting enough sleep, which can have a negative impact on their grades. Among the reasons for these changes in sleeping patterns are increased part-time working hours, pulling all-nighters to finish a paper or cram for an exam, and watching television at bedtime. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the best way to maximize performance on final exams is to both study and get a good night of sleep.

Lawrence Epstein, MD, medical director of Sleep Health Centers in Brighton, Mass., an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a past president of the AASM and a member of the AASM board of directors, says that sleep deprivation effects not only whether a student can stay awake in class but how they perform as well.

“Recent studies have shown that adequate sleep is essential to feeling awake and alert, maintaining good health and working at peak performance,” says Dr. Epstein. “After two weeks of sleeping six hours or less a night, students feel as bad and perform as poorly as someone who has gone without sleep for 48 hours. New research also highlights the importance of sleep in learning and memory. Students getting adequate amounts of sleep performed better on memory and motor tasks than did students deprived of sleep.”

Clete A. Kushida, MD, PhD, associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University Medical Center, an attending physician at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic, director of the Stanford University Center for Human Sleep Research and a member of the AASM board of directors, notes that the degree of daytime alertness is arguably the most sensitive measure as to how much sleep is necessary for the specific individual.

“If the individual is routinely tired or sleepy during the daytime, odds are that he or she is not getting enough sleep,” says Dr. Kushida. “To take it one step further, there are two primary factors that affect the degree of daytime alertness: sleep quantity and sleep quality. For the student-age population, sleep quantity and quality issues are both important. However, key factors affecting sleep quality, such as the major sleep disorders (e.g., obstructive sleep apnea and restless legs syndrome), are less prevalent in this age group compared to middle-aged or older individuals.”

Dr. Kushida adds that the importance of obtaining adequate sleep in the student-age population cannot be overemphasized.

“There are data that sleep loss leads to learning and memory impairment, as well as decreased attention and vigilance,” says Dr. Kushida. “In the student-age population, studies have found that factors such as self-reported shortened sleep time, erratic sleep/wake schedules, late bed and rise times, and poor sleep quality have been found to be negatively associated with school performance for adolescents from middle school through college. Thus, there is ample evidence to indicate that the lack of adequate nighttime sleep can lead to disturbances in brain function, which in turn, can lead to poor academic performance.”

Other recent studies outline the adverse effects of poor sleep among students with regards to their success in school:

• Sleepiness and poor sleep quality are prevalent among university students, affecting their academic performance and daytime functioning.
• Students with symptoms of sleep disorders are more likely to receive poor grades in classes such as math, reading and writing than peers without symptoms of sleep disorders.
• College students with insomnia have significantly more mental health problems than college students without insomnia.
• College students with medical-related majors are more likely to have poorer quality of sleep in comparison to those with a humanities major.
• College students who pull “all-nighters” are more likely to have a lower GPA.
• Students who stay up late on school nights and make up for it by sleeping late on weekends are more likely to perform poorly in the classroom. This is because, on weekends, they are waking up at a time that is later than their internal body clock expects. The fact that their clock must get used to a new routine may affect their ability to be awake early for school at the beginning of the week when they revert back to their new routine.

The following tips are provided by the AASM to help students learn how to get enough sleep:

Go to bed early

Students should go to bed early enough to have the opportunity for a full night of sleep. Adults need about seven to eight hours of sleep each night.

Get out of bed

If you have trouble falling asleep, get out of bed and do something relaxing until you feel sleepy.

Stay out of bed

Don’t study, read, watch TV or talk on the phone in bed. Only use your bed for sleep.

If you take a nap, then keep it brief. Nap for less than an hour and before 3 p.m.

Wake up on the weekend

It is best to go to bed and wake up at the same times on the weekend as you do during the schoolweek. If you missed out on a lot of sleep during the week, then you can try to catch up on the weekend. But sleeping in later on Saturdays and Sundays will make it very hard for you to wake up for classes on Monday morning.

Avoid caffeine

Avoid caffeine in the afternoon and at night. It stays in your system for hours and can make it hard for you to fall asleep.

Adjust the lights

Dim the lights in the evening and at night so your body knows it will soon be time to sleep. Let in the sunlight in the morning to boost your alertness.

Take some time to “wind down” before going to bed. Get away from the computer, turn off the TV and the cell phone, and relax quietly for 15 to 30 minutes.

Eat a little

Never eat a large meal right before bedtime. Enjoy a healthy snack or light dessert so you don’t go to bed hungry.

Those who believe they have a sleep disorder should consult with their primary care physician or a sleep specialist.

Sleep Education , a patient education website created by the AASM, provides information about various sleep disorders, the forms of treatment available, recent news on the topic of sleep, sleep studies that have been conducted and a listing of sleep facilities.

AASM is a professional membership organization dedicated to the advancement of sleep medicine and sleep-related research.

To arrange an interview with an AASM spokesperson, please contact [email protected] .

Updated Nov. 6, 2017

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Related posts.

Americans opting for ‘sleep divorce’ to accommodate a bed partner

Survey shows 12% of Americans have been diagnosed with chronic insomnia

American Academy of Sleep Medicine installs Dr. Eric Olson as president

American Academy of Sleep Medicine announces 2024 award recipients

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

Impact of the lack of sleep on academic performance in college students

Related Papers

Madridge Journal of Nursing

Madridge Journals , Jessica Naber

University students report significantly worse quality of sleep, including inconsistent sleep schedules and sleep deprivation, than the general population. They also suffer from a greater amount of daytime sleepiness than the general population. Students also report significantly fewer total hours of sleep each night than the daily-recommended amount, for their age group, to promote normal cognitive functioning. Students tend to sacrifice sleep to participate in social and academic commitments contributing to constantly changing sleep routines and poor sleeping habits. All of these factors may affect aspects of the average university student's life including mood, immune system function, and even substance abuse

ICERI2016 Proceedings

Olujide Adekeye

Ruth Aderanti

Sleep has been found to be of the least priority of most individuals especially students. This may not be unconnected with the fact that, they feel they must always meet up with deadlines in form of school assignments and examinations. A descriptive survey design was used to find the relationship between sleep and the academic performance of University students. The population comprised undergraduate students attending Private universities in Ogun State, South-west Nigeria. Three hundred and eight participants were randomly selected for the study. The Groninger Sleep Quality Questionnaire was adapted for the purpose of this study. The scale has response choices ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree, measuring the students ’ sleep quality. The Cumulative Grade Point Average of the respondents was correlated with the amount of sleep, using Pearson moment correlation coefficient. The result shows a significant relationship between adequate / inadequate sleep and academic per...

Nicholas Bandola

Sleep and Breathing

Christopher Lettieri

Edukasiana: Jurnal Inovasi Pendidikan

Zyra Morales

The transition from online classes to blended learning has resulted in a common occurrence of sleep deprivation among Senior High School (SHS) students. This study aims to investigate the potential relationship between students&#39; sleeping hours and their academic performance and classroom participation at NU-Nazareth. The researchers opted for a descriptive-correlational research design, using a multi-stage sampling technique to select participants for the study. The study was conducted at NU-Nazareth School during the academic year 2022-2023. The data collected revealed that, on average, students had only 6 hours of sleep. Surprisingly, the study&#39;s findings indicated no significant relationship between sleep hours and academic performance, nor between sleep hours and classroom participation. Therefore, based on the data, it can be concluded that a student&#39;s academic performance and classroom engagement are not significantly influenced by their sleep duration. The results...

Perceptual and motor skills

Jordan Ransom

This essay denotates the negative effect of sleep deprivation on college students. It analysis changes in productivity levels, grades, and physical activity. It is concluded that sleep deprivation severely and negatively impacts all of these aspects of a college students life.

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences

Mahnoor Khalid

OBJECTIVE: The objective of the study,isto compare the relationship between lack of sleep and the academic performance of the undergraduate students of a medical college of Pakistan. METHODS AND MATERIALS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a medical college of Pakistanin April 2016. Subjects were recruited by non-probability convenient sampling. A total of 140 subjectswereasked questions about sleep by a properly designed questionnaire from 2nd to 5th Year MBBS. Students having a prior diagnosis of sleep disorder were excluded from study.Data was analyzed using SPSS version 18. RESULTS: A total of 101 females and 39 males participated in the study. Duringnon-exam days, 41.14% of the students slept less than seven hours. The figure approached 80% in exam days. Cross tabulation failed to reveal a correlation between hours of sleep and academic performanceSpearman correlation showed a negative academic performance with less sleep in fourth and fifth year students. CONCLUSION: St...

Journal of sleep sciences

Md. Moyazzem Hossain

Loading Preview

Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. You can download the paper by clicking the button above.

RELATED PAPERS

Journal of Psychiatric Research

Martin Dresler

Craig Becker

Kendall Jenner

Seth McGann

Procedia-Social and …

Faizal Fadzil

Clocks & Sleep

Martyn Beaven

Journal of American College Health

Biological Rhythm Research

John F Araújo

Turkish Journal of Computer and Mathematics Education Vol.12 No.10(2021), 412-419

steve embang

BMC Medical Education

Ahmed BaHammam , Abdulrahman Alaseem , Aljohara Almeneessier

Nafia Yasmin

Nature and Science of Sleep

Shelley Hershner

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Carlos Ruiz Frutos

International Journal of Higher Education

Sara Oswalt

Ayinun Rachmi Ar

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Healthcare (Basel)

The Global Problem of Insufficient Sleep and Its Serious Public Health Implications

Vijay kumar chattu.

1 Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; [email protected]

Md. Dilshad Manzar

2 Department of Nursing, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Majmaah University, Majmaah 11952, Saudi Arabia; [email protected]

Soosanna Kumary

Deepa burman.

3 School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 4200 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; [email protected]

David Warren Spence

4 Independent Researcher, 652 Dufferin Street, Toronto, ON M6K 2B4, Canada; mf.liamtsaf@ecnepswd

Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal

5 Somnogen Canada Inc., College Street, Toronto, ON M1H 1C5, Canada; moc.liamg@9102lamurepidnap

Good sleep is necessary for good physical and mental health and a good quality of life. Insufficient sleep is a pervasive and prominent problem in the modern 24-h society. A considerable body of evidence suggests that insufficient sleep causes hosts of adverse medical and mental dysfunctions. An extensive literature search was done in all the major databases for “insufficient sleep” and “public health implications” in this review. Globally, insufficient sleep is prevalent across various age groups, considered to be a public health epidemic that is often unrecognized, under-reported, and that has rather high economic costs. This paper addresses a brief overview on insufficient sleep, causes, and consequences, and how it adds to the existing burden of diseases. Insufficient sleep leads to the derailment of body systems, leading to increased incidences of cardiovascular morbidity, increased chances of diabetes mellitus, obesity, derailment of cognitive functions, vehicular accidents, and increased accidents at workplaces. The increased usage of smart phones and electronic devices is worsening the epidemic. Adolescents with insufficient sleep are likely to be overweight and may suffer from depressive symptoms. The paper concludes by emphasizing sleep quality assessments as an important early risk indicator, thereby reducing the incidence of a wide spectrum of morbidities.

1. Introduction

Insufficient sleep is associated with a range of negative health and social outcomes, including an adverse performance at school and in the labor market. Reduced sleep duration has been linked to 7 of the 15 leading causes of death in the U.S., including cardiovascular disease, malignant neoplasm, cerebrovascular disease, accidents, diabetes, septicemia, and hypertension [ 1 ]. The evidence suggests that the link between inadequate sleep and negative outcomes is more direct, whereas the link between excessive sleep and negative outcomes seems to be more indirect (i.e., excessive sleep is driven by underlying chronic health conditions and not vice versa). Hence, the impact of insufficient sleep appears to be the more salient issue in our society and, because of its broad-ranging effects, represents a major public health concern. In this review, we note some of the more serious consequences of insufficient sleep, and additionally consider how these might be best addressed by changes in individual behavior, actions by employers, and by public policy measures [ 2 ].

According to the International Classification of Sleep Disorders (ICSD-3), insufficient sleep is defined as a curtailed sleep pattern that has persisted for at least three months for most days of the week, along with complaints of sleepiness during the day. Further, a resolution of sleepiness complaints is shown to follow an extension of total sleep time. Frequently occurring episodes of insufficient sleep are associated with the experience of unfavorable mental and physical well-being [ 3 ]. Sleep insufficiency is sometimes confused with insomnia, but the opportunity to sleep differs in the two disorders (with insomnia sufferers typically being unable to sleep despite having opportunities to do so).

2. Materials and Methods

An extensive literature search was done, and relevant articles were identified through online searches of electronic databases (i.e., the PubMed, Medline, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, and Global Health databases). Relevant keywords relating to “insufficient sleep”, in combination with (and/or) public health impact were searched, around 3626 articles were screened for duplication and relevance to fit the inclusion criteria, and finally 111 articles with full texts were included in this review, as shown in the flow chart below ( Figure 1 ). Articles on cardiometabolic disorders, mental health, accidents and trauma, sleep apnoea, obesity, adolescents, meta-analysis, randomized control trials, longitudinal studies, and cross-sectional studies were included (that reflected the public health impacts of insufficient sleep). Additional publications were identified from references cited in the original articles. The major findings were classified into different categories and are presented in the tables, figures, and narrative description below.

Flow chart of literature search.

2.1. Epidemiology

A recent study of the prevalence of sleep disorders investigated over 20,000 patients in the Netherlands who were aged 12 years old or older. The study found an alarming prevalence rate of 27.3%, with 21.2% of the males and 33.2% of the females reporting that they had some type of sleep disorder [ 4 ]. A national quasirandom sample study of sleep disorders in 12 provinces of the Netherlands showed a prevalence of 23.5% [ 5 ], while a similar nationally representative sample of individuals in the age group of 18–70 years also showed high prevalence rates. Polling based on a validated questionnaire of ICSD revealed that, among the total sample, 32% complained of experiencing general sleep disturbances while 43.2% said they suffered from insufficient sleep [ 6 ]. Other surveys by Hublin et al. [ 7 ] and Ursin et al. [ 8 ] found the prevalence rates for disturbed sleep to be, respectively, 20.4% and 20%. Discrepancies in the prevalence rates found by the various surveys were possibly due to the separate questionnaires that were used, differences in sampling techniques, or other possible methodological differences. Nevertheless, the findings were in concordance in showing that poor-quality sleep is a problem for a major segment of the samples that were surveyed.

Although the need for sleep among adolescents has been determined to be about 9.25 h per day [ 9 ], there are still many adolescents who obtain less sleep than they actually need [ 10 ], thus creating a chronic sleep debt. A study conducted in Norway among 1285 high school students (aged 16–19 years) showed an estimated 10.4% prevalence of behaviorally induced insufficient sleep syndrome (i.e., the condition was due to individual choices regarding bedtimes rather than being the consequence of a medical condition) [ 11 ]. Among a sample of 2738 soldiers who were surveyed about their sleep behavior and perceived feelings of sleepiness, the average reported sleep duration was found to be 5.8 ± 1.2 h, with 1959 soldiers, or 72% of the sample, reporting that they slept less than 6 h [ 12 ].

Sleep needs vary among individuals based on age, and even response to sleep restriction changes with age. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state-based survey in 2014, only 65% of adults reported a healthy duration of sleep. In a recent survey, an estimated 83.6 million adults in the United States were reportedly sleeping <7 h in 24 h [ 13 ]. The prevalence of continuous insufficient sleep among American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) has not been formally surveyed, but anecdotal reports suggest that the figure is high in these minority groups. It has been suggested that the rates of mental disturbance that are also known to be elevated in these groups may possibly be, in part, attributable to insufficient sleep, and thus that public health and education efforts to address these problems should be undertaken [ 14 ].

Magee et al. [ 15 ], for instance, explored the determinants of sleep duration among a cohort of Australian adults aged 18 to 64 years. Using multivariate statistical analysis, the study found that short sleep durations were associated with longer working hours, lower education levels, being single rather than married, being a current cigarette smoker, or with showing high levels of alcohol consumption, obesity, or depression or anxiety, as shown in Figure 2 below. Krueger and Friedman [ 16 ] found that factors such as low levels of education and cardiovascular disease were associated with both short and long sleep (e.g., more than nine hours). Short sleep was associated with being in an older age group, being a frequent smoker or consumer of alcohol, being overweight or obese, as well as with having young children. A study from Finland by Kronholm et al. [ 17 ] reported that gender, as well as marital status, occupation, and physical activity, were major drivers of short sleep duration. According to the study, men were more likely to be short sleepers than women. A study of the effects of workplace-related factors found that job stress factors such as quantitative workload and interpersonal conflict led to short sleep duration among male Japanese manufacturing workers [ 18 ]. Psychosocial factors such as tension or anxiety and depressive symptoms have also been associated with reduced sleep. In addition, organizational factors related to discrimination, work-life balance, high work demands, and job insecurity were associated with an increased prevalence of sleep problems [ 19 , 20 ].

Insufficient sleep and its impact on the pathophysiology of the human body.

Lack of sleep has been shown to increase the risk of premature mortality. In a recent review of various surveys, it was concluded that individuals who slept for less than six hours each night had a tenfold greater risk of premature mortality than those who obtained seven to nine hours of sleep [ 21 ]. Given the potential antagonistic impacts of inadequate mull or consideration over well-being, prosperity, and profitability, the outcomes of lack of sleep have expensive financial results. Insufficient sleep is a global problem that is becoming increasingly common in today’s society. Compared to a few decades ago, significant changes in sleep culture have been observed worldwide. This global trend has produced massive social and economic shifts, and additionally has had marked public health consequences, and foremost among these is the significant reduction in total sleeping hours that have occurred in both adults and children [ 22 ].

2.2. All-Cause Mortality

Epidemiological evidence suggests that sleep duration and poor sleep are associated with premature mortality, as well as with an extensive variety of adverse health outcomes [ 23 ]. The Sleep Heart Study was done to determine the association between insufficient sleep conditions, including insomnia or poor-quality sleep and objectively measured short duration sleep, and the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality in the general population. The study found that there was a 29% higher risk of CVD in study subjects who had insomnia or poor sleep with short sleep when compared to a reference group, thus supporting the conclusion that poor sleep with objectively measured short sleep was associated with a higher risk of CVD development [ 24 ].

2.3. Sleep Duration Recommendations by Age

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS) have recommended that adults aged 18 to 60 years should sleep seven or more hours per night on a regular basis for ideal sleep health. Additionally, the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) consensus report has stated that seven to nine hours is recommended for adults aged 18 to 64 years, while seven to eight hours is suggested for those 65 years of age and older [ 25 ].

2.4. Pathophysiology

There are specific biomarkers that are released throughout insufficient sleep. Experimental studies with human subjects have demonstrated that proinflammatory markers undergo changes following laboratory-induced sleep loss. Markers that have been found to be dysregulated in acute sleep deficiency include IL-6 [ 26 ], IL1 receptor antagonist [ 27 ], and salivary amylase. However, there are biomarkers needed for the prediction of sleepiness and other consequences of sleep deprivation. Another study used NMR measures of metabolism to determine how the pathways involved in cholesterol metabolism and inflammatory responses changed due to prolonged sleep restriction. The investigation found that, compared to normal, sleep-restricted subjects showed decreases in levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), whereas there were no significant changes in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. In a comparison group of subjects who reported that they suffered from subjective sleep insufficiency, HDL levels were decreased, but LDL levels did not differ from those of the restricted group [ 28 ]. In an analysis of data from 1024 adults surveyed in the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort Study, it was found that short sleep durations were associated with lower leptin and higher ghrelin levels [ 29 ].

2.5. Contributing Factors

Studies have observed that sleep duration and daytime sleepiness varies by gender and marital status. The presence of children in a family often contributes to insufficient rest or sleep among the adults with whom they live [ 14 ]. Insufficient sleep is typically a long-standing condition, often linked to biological or circadian disruption factors. Reviews of studies of possible causal factors have additionally suggested that genetic influences may account for possibly as much as one-third of cases of insufficient sleep [ 7 ]. Insufficient sleep duration is associated with an elevated intake of soda via excessive consumption of salt or carbonated beverages, and less frequent vegetable consumption [ 30 ]. Various types of stress also contribute. Housing insecurity and food uncertainty are psychological stressors associated with insufficient sleep [ 31 ]. Social and behavioral predictors of health exclusively add to the explosion of insufficient sleep [ 32 ]. Active smoking, smokeless tobacco, and secondhand smoke exposure have been additionally associated with insufficient sleep [ 33 ]. An increasing number of studies have shown that insufficient sleep and behavioral or emotional problems have reciprocal and mutually facilitating effects. It is known, for instance, that mood disorders are frequently associated with severe sleep problems and that the problems that are linked to inadequate sleep, such as reduced impulse control, reductions in attention span, and memory impairments, may further exacerbate a pre-existing mood disorder [ 34 ].

3. Results: Manifestations of Insufficient Sleep

3.1. cognitive effects.

Insufficient sleep can contribute to aberrant behavior. Subjects who are chronically sleep-restricted may exhibit increased risk-taking behavior, or subjectively may show deficiencies in reasoning that result from seeking premature conclusions without considering all aspects of a problem. This type of impulsivity may manifest also as increased but unnoticed risk-seeking [ 35 ]. Insufficient sleep that occurs in children in the preschool and early school years is associated with poorer mother- and teacher-reported neurobehavioral processes, which particularly manifest in mid-childhood [ 36 ].

3.2. Mood and Judgment

Chronic sleep restriction among adolescents may increase suicidal risk [ 37 ]. Sleep loss can have adverse effects on the control of mood and behavior. Irritability, moodiness, and poor frustration tolerance are the most frequently described symptoms in subjects who are suffering from sleep restriction [ 34 ]. One study investigated the behavioral and psychological consequences of chronic sleep deprivation in different age or social groups. Among all groups, sleep restriction had generally adverse effects, but some subgroup differences were noted. Adolescents complained of tiredness upon awakening (46%), nervousness, and general weakness; university students reported experiencing excessive drowsiness (50%), tension, and nervousness; and working adults suffered mostly from negative moods, such as tension (49%), nervousness, and irritability [ 38 ].

3.3. Sleepiness and Microsleep

Daytime sleepiness is the most direct result of sleep loss reported by adolescents and manifests most significantly as difficulty in getting up in the morning. Sleepiness is also connected to a strong tendency toward brief mental lapses (or microsleep episodes), occurrences that significantly increase the risk of motor vehicle and other accidents [ 34 ]. A study based on the monitoring of microsleep episodes was carried out to investigate the consequences of sleep restriction (SR) on the maintenance of wakefulness and diurnal sleepiness. The investigators found that during sleep restriction, daytime microsleeping correlated with the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) but not with the Maintenance of Wakefulness Test (MWT). The study also concluded that the frequency of microsleeping is an objective marker of diurnal sleep pressure [ 39 ].

3.4. Effects on Respiratory Physiology

There is growing interest in the impact of sleep and its disorders on the regulation of inflammatory processes and tissue morbidities, particularly in the context of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is commonly seen in conjunction with insufficient sleep [ 40 ].

The condition of narcolepsy-cataplexy is characterized by disrupted nocturnal sleep as one of its most noticeable features, which in turn contributes to excessive daytime sleepiness in affected patients. Another feature of the condition is the lack of adequate non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, which is related to nonconsolidated nocturnal sleep in narcolepsy-cataplexy, which also occurs in this patient group [ 41 ].

3.5. Wakefulness and Vigilance

Chronic insufficient sleep duration equivalent to an average of 5.6 h of sleep during a 24-h period has been found to double neurobehavioral reaction time performance and to increase lapses of attention fivefold. Impairments in neurobehavioral performance were worsened during the circadian night and did not recover during the circadian day, thus indicating that the deleterious effect from the homeostatic buildup of chronic sleep restriction (CSR) is expressed even during the circadian promotion of daytime arousal [ 42 ].

3.6. Tiredness and Fatigue

There is evidence that sleep loss can impair active cognitive processes such as planning, coping, and problem-solving. In sleep-impaired individuals, these deficits may particularly manifest in behaviors that require creative solutions to problems that are either complex or are lacking in sufficient information. The energy that is required to analyze unfamiliar environmental challenges or to sustain an extended chain of logical thought is especially reduced in sleep-deprived subjects. This internal state cognitive impairment may thus affect their ability to initiate behaviors related to long-term or abstract goals, and, as a result, may decrease their motivation to work toward those goals [ 34 ].

3.7. Effects on Mental Health

Chronic sleep loss and associated sleepiness and daytime impairments in adolescence are a genuine impediment to the achievement of academic success, health (for example depression, increased obesity risk), and safety (such as driving accidents) [ 43 ]. Emotional excitement and pain can cause difficulties with either sleep initiation or sleep maintenance. Behavioral issues and family conflict can contribute to even later bedtimes and to sleep schedules that are particularly at variance with daily schedules [ 34 ]. Further, a number of studies have shown that inadequate sleep increases the likelihood of daytime accidents and critical mistakes in the workplace.

3.8. Increased Incidence of Cardiovascular Morbidity

Insufficient sleep is associated with cardiovascular disease, and has been studied in numerous racial and ethnic groups. Similarly, the association between insufficient sleep and diabetes mellitus has been demonstrated to occur in a number of racial and ethnic minorities, with the exception of non-Hispanic blacks [ 44 ]. Insufficient sleep is also associated with cardiometabolic risk and neurocognitive impairment. Determinants of insufficient sleep include many social and environmental factors. Surveys have shown that the incidence of inadequate sleep is not consistent across all areas of the United States. Respondents in a few areas, and particularly in Appalachia, have reported excessively high levels of inadequate rest [ 45 ]. Insufficient sleep has also been shown to be linked to an increased risk of acute myocardial infarction [ 46 ]. It has been reported by Curtis [ 47 ] that more than one-half of racial differences in cardiometabolic risk can actually be explained by sleep patterns, and, more specifically, that, compared to Caucasian American adults, the reduced total sleep time and lower sleep efficiency of African-Americans is largely attributable to lifestyle or personal choice factors rather than racial or genetic influences. The study found that, compared to Caucasian Americans, African Americans obtained less sleep (341 vs. 381 min) and had lower sleep efficiency (72.3 vs. 82.2%) ( P- value < 0.001). Further, 41% and 58% of the racial difference in cardiometabolic risk was explained by sleep time and sleep efficiency, respectively.

3.9. Effects on the Immune System

Sleep loss can adversely affect components of the immune system critical to host resistance to infectious illness. Furthermore, short sleep duration and sleep disturbances prospectively predict increased susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infection after an experimental viral challenge [ 48 ]. Additional findings are listed in Table 1 .

Sleep deprivation, which has been recognized as a “public health epidemic” linked to a range of medical and mental health issues.

3.10. Obesity and Metabolism

Sleep plays a pivotal role in energy metabolism. Both sufficient sleep and high-quality diets are vital for the prevention of obesity [ 49 ]. Various studies have shown linkages between insufficient sleep and obesity. Increased food intake during insufficient sleep is a physiological adaptation to provide the energy needed to sustain additional wakefulness, yet when food is easily accessible, intake often exceeds that which is required [ 50 ]. There is reliable evidence supporting the conclusion that sleep restriction increases food intake, and further that this association is due to increased production of the appetitive hormone ghrelin [ 29 , 51 ]. As a consequence, insufficient sleep is associated with increases in body mass index (BMI). Sleep loss can alter energy intake and expenditure. The amount of human sleep contributes to the maintenance of fat-free body mass at times of decreased energy intake. Lack of sufficient sleep may compromise dietary interventions for weight loss and related metabolic risk reduction [ 52 ]. Chronic sleep restriction is a potential risk factor for the maintenance of metabolic health. There is an association between insufficient sleep and an increased incidence of obesity and related morbidities. Thus, overweight and obese individuals attempting to reduce their caloric intake and maintain increased physical activity should obtain adequate sleep and, if needed, seek effective treatment for any coexisting sleep disorders [ 53 ].

3.11. Increased Risk for Diabetes Mellitus

Insufficient sleep, or more precisely the suppression of slow wave sleep and rapid eye movement sleep, has been associated with insulin resistance [ 54 ]. There is a high prevalence of insufficient sleep in young patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 (type 1 diabetes) and their relatives [ 55 ]. Inadequate sleep is also associated with an increased risk of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and mortality. Lower scores on a scale of self-rated health (SRH), which are also linked to insufficient sleep, have been shown to indicate an elevated risk of CVD and death [ 56 ].

3.12. Migraine

The prevalence of insufficient sleep is significantly higher in patients with migraines when compared to those in nonmigraine headache or nonheadache groups [ 57 ]. The Chronic Migraine Epidemiology and Outcomes (CaMEO) Study, which assessed the relationship between sleep disturbances, including sleep apnea, and episodic or chronic migraines, concluded that the conditions were associated, and that the risk was enhanced in the elderly and in those with a higher BMI [ 58 ].

3.13. Clinical Burnout

In one study, it was found that insufficient sleep, preoccupation with thoughts of work during leisure time, and high work demands were risk factors for consequent clinical burnout [ 59 ]. It has also been found that sleep problems tend to precede symptoms of low back pain (LBP) and burnout in working individuals. It has therefore been suggested that health promotion initiatives should emphasize assessments of sleep quality as an important early risk indicator, and, further, that interventions should focus on promoting a better quality of sleep, in an attempt to reduce the incidence of LBP and burnout [ 60 ].

3.14. Increased Risk of Cancers

Insufficient sleep, including short sleep duration and sleep disruption, might be related to an increased risk of cancerous tumor formation [ 61 ]. Sleep disturbance increases the risk of breast cancer. It has been suggested that melatonin is involved in the relationship between sleep and breast cancer, in as much as exogenously applied melatonin provides an antiproliferative effect on breast cancer cells [ 62 ].

3.15. Sleep-Wake Disturbances in Shift Workers

Self-reported bruxism may indicate sleep problems and associated fatigue in daytime waking hours in nonpatient populations. It may be more prevalent among people who do shift work schedules or who work in jobs with irregular hours [ 63 ]. Laboratory studies have indicated that cardiometabolic stress and cognitive impairments are increased by shift work, as well as by insufficient sleep. A recent study by Kervezee [ 64 ] found that four days of simulated night shifts was associated with a loss in temporal coordination between internal circadian rhythmicity and the external environment, which in turn produced broader associated adverse health effects, which are commonly seen in night shift workers. A recent review [ 65 ] based on 38 meta-analyses and 24 systematic reviews summarized the linkages between shift work and adverse consequences, such as insufficient sleep, cardiovascular diseases, and accidents. The meta-analysis showed that shift work was closely linked to cardiometabolic diseases and accidents and that these associations tended to mimic those seen in persons with insufficient sleep. All these impairments because of insufficient sleep are described in Table 1 below.

4. Discussion

The general public often devalues the seriousness of insufficient sleep and may have a more general attitude that, in the larger scheme of life’s difficulties, “not getting enough sleep” occupies a fairly low rung on the stepladder of personal health concerns. As a consequence, sleep insufficiency often goes unreported by patients in medical interviews. Some senior specialists skillfully and intentionally deal with the issue of their patients’ sleeping habits, but, as the evidence of the studies reviewed here show, the significance of sleep to health status deserves particular and earnest attention.

To ensure that they obtain sufficient sleep, patients should set predictable wake-up times, refrain from using electronic devices prior to their normal sleep time, and obtain adequate physical exercise [ 21 ]. Employers need to be made aware of the significance of rest for overall health and the responsibility of businesses to provide a work environment and conditions that will not interfere with an employee’s right to adequate sleep. Business management needs to plan for and create brighter workspaces. Business managers should also strive to discourage conflict in the workplace and discourage the use of electronic devices. Further, school officials should consider establishing later school start times to avoid interference with students’ critical need for sleep, which exists during the adolescent years [ 21 ].

Policymakers should encourage educational efforts to raise awareness about the importance of sleep, and especially emphasize the contribution that employers can make to ensuring that work assignments do not adversely interfere with sleep schedules. It has been found that adolescents who do not obtain sufficient sleep are likely to be overweight due to lack of engagement in daily physical activity, may suffer from depressive symptoms, may engage in risky behaviors (drinking, smoking tobacco, and using illicit drugs), and may perform inadequately in school [ 106 ].

5. Conclusions

Insufficient sleep and its health consequences may go unrecognized by clinicians inasmuch as many medical school curriculums do not emphasize the importance of sleep to overall health. The causes of common patient complaints of daytime weakness, tiredness, sluggishness, languid driving, and intellectual troubles may often be misattributed to life stresses such as family or social problems rather than to the more basic cause of inadequate rest. There is a clear need for medical professionals to ensure that their patients are made aware of common contributors to sleep disruption such as jet lag or shift work. However, more fundamentally, patient attitudes about the adverse effects of inadequate sleep for health need to be addressed.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, V.K.C. and S.R.P.-P.; methodology, V.K.C., S.R.P.-P., M.D.M. and S.K.; formal analysis, V.K.C. and S.R.P.-P.; resources, D.B. and D.W.S.; data curation, D.W.S.; writing—original draft preparation, S.R.P.-P.; writing—review and editing, V.K.C., M.D.M., S.K. and D.B.; supervision, S.R.P.-P. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

This research received no external funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Neurology & Nervous System Diseases — Sleep Deprivation

Sleep Deprivation Essay Examples

What makes a good sleep deprivation essay topics.

When it comes to writing an essay on sleep deprivation, choosing the right topic is crucial. A good essay topic should be thought-provoking, engaging, and relevant to the subject matter. In order to come up with a strong essay topic on sleep deprivation, it is important to consider various factors such as the target audience, the scope of the topic, and the availability of research material. Here are some recommendations on how to brainstorm and choose an essay topic on sleep deprivation.

First, start by brainstorming ideas related to sleep deprivation. Consider the various aspects of sleep deprivation that are of interest to you and that you think would be relevant to your audience. This could include topics such as the impact of sleep deprivation on cognitive function, the relationship between sleep deprivation and mental health, or the effects of sleep deprivation on physical health.

Next, consider What Makes a Good essay topic. A good essay topic should be specific, focused, and relevant to the subject matter. It should also be unique and thought-provoking, allowing for a deep exploration of the topic. When choosing an essay topic on sleep deprivation, consider the availability of research material and the potential for new insights and perspectives.

Finally, consider the target audience for your essay. What are the interests and concerns of your readers? What topics are likely to engage and captivate them? By considering the needs and interests of your audience, you can choose a topic that will resonate with them and provide valuable insights into the subject of sleep deprivation.

In , a good essay topic on sleep deprivation should be specific, focused, and relevant to the subject matter. It should also be thought-provoking, engaging, and relevant to the target audience. By considering these factors, you can brainstorm and choose an essay topic that will captivate your readers and provide valuable insights into the topic of sleep deprivation.

Best Sleep Deprivation Essay Topics

• The impact of sleep deprivation on academic performance
• Sleep deprivation and its effects on mental health
• The relationship between sleep deprivation and physical health
• The role of technology in contributing to sleep deprivation
• Sleep deprivation and its impact on workplace productivity
• The effects of sleep deprivation on memory and cognitive function
• Sleep deprivation and its impact on decision-making
• The relationship between sleep deprivation and mood disorders
• The impact of sleep deprivation on athletic performance
• Sleep deprivation and its effects on aging
• The role of genetics in sleep deprivation
• Sleep deprivation and its impact on obesity
• The effects of sleep deprivation on immune function
• Sleep deprivation and its impact on driving safety
• The relationship between sleep deprivation and chronic pain
• Sleep deprivation and its impact on creativity and innovation
• The effects of sleep deprivation on social interactions
• Sleep deprivation and its impact on learning and memory
• The relationship between sleep deprivation and substance abuse
• Sleep deprivation and its impact on overall well-being

Sleep Deprivation essay topics Prompts

• Imagine a world where sleep deprivation is non-existent. How would this impact society and individuals?
• Write a fictional story about a character who suffers from chronic sleep deprivation and the impact it has on their life.
• Research and analyze the impact of sleep deprivation on a specific demographic, such as teenagers or shift workers.
• Explore the connection between sleep deprivation and societal issues such as poverty or inequality.
• Write a persuasive essay advocating for better awareness and support for individuals suffering from sleep deprivation.

The Causes, Effects and Previous Solutions of Sleep Deprivation

Sleep matters: the human condition in the midst of sleep deprivation, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences

+ experts online

Sleep Deprivation and Its Effects on Daily Performances

The importance of sleeping and staying active, the dangerous effects of insomnia, the effects of sleep deprivation on memory, let us write you an essay from scratch.

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

The Importance of Sleep for Our Body and Mind, Effects of Sleep Deprivation

The effect of sleep deprivation on a student’s performance, how sleep deprivation affects students, sleep deprivation in teenagers, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

Major Health Risks of Sleep Deprivation

Sleep & problems connected with it, impact of sleeping habits on our life, effects of poor sleep hygiene, analysis of the different ways in which sleep affects memory, sleep deprivation and disorders effects on health, why sleep is vital: the importance of a good sleep, zolpidem: the effect on sleep, call center agents and health status with sleep deprivation, miracle pill from sleep deprivation, nurses on night shifts: their lived experiences, sleep deprivation: a headache for people in the 21 century, what happens to the body when you don’t get enough sleep, sleep deprivation and its relation to metabolic syndrome, the matter of sleep deprivation in clinical settings, the effects of sleep deprivation, sleep deprivation: causes, effects, and solutions, relevant topics.

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Postpartum Depression
• Eating Disorders
• Teenage Pregnancy
• Schizophrenia
• Medical Marijuana

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Joye expedition investigates hydrothermal systems

Supported by a National Science Foundation grant, marine sciences faculty member Samantha Joye led an interdisciplinary team in Spring 2024—composed of researchers from Montana State University, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Wisconsin—to the Gulf of California aboard the research vessel Atlantis , a U.S. Navy ship operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Our colleagues in UGA Research Communications share a terrific photo essay:

“When you’re on a ship, operations occur around the clock. When you’re the chief scientist, there is not much rest,” said Joye, Regents’ Professor and UGA Athletics Association Professor in the Franklin College of Arts & Sciences Department of Marine Sciences . “I would get about four hours of sleep each night, then I was back in the lab or preparing for a dive.” Upon finally reaching the study area, they discovered drastic changes due to many earthquakes occurring over the past five years, as well as the recent El Niño climate pattern. “We had to start from scratch. The area had changed so much, we didn’t even recognize it,” Joye said. The team spent three weeks at sea, investigating how recent events had affected hydrothermal systems located along the gulf’s sea floor. The hydrothermal vents release high-temperature water that creates a black “smoke” when mixed with the cold seawater.

Enjoy the entire photo essay.

Image: Photo by Susan Casey

Support Franklin College

We appreciate your financial support. Your gift is important to us and helps support critical opportunities for students and faculty alike, including lectures, travel support, and any number of educational events that augment the classroom experience.  Click here to learn more about giving .

Every dollar given has a direct impact upon our students and faculty.

Office of the Dean

For undergraduates.