sleep deprivation on academic performance essay

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The Effect of Sleep Quality on Students’ Academic Achievement

Rostam jalali.

1 Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

Habibollah Khazaei

2 Sleep Disorders Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

Behnam Khaledi Paveh

Zinab hayrani, lida menati.

Sleep is an inseparable part of human health and life, which is crucial in learning, practice, as well as physical and mental health. It affects the capacity of individual learning, academic performance, and neural-behavioral functions. This study aimed to determine the relationship between sleep quality and students’ academic achievement among students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences.

In this cross-sectional study, 102 medical students from different fields, with maximum variation sampling, completed Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). For data analysis, SPSS 19 was used through which Pearson correlation test, Spearman test, and t -test were employed.

Based on the quality of sleep questionnaire scores, the results indicated no significant difference between students with high grades and those with low grades. However, there were moderate and sometimes severe sleep disturbances in both groups.

The results showed no significant difference between sleep quality and academic achievement. Nevertheless, longitudinal study should be performed to control for confounding factors.

Sleep is an inseparable part of human health and life, and is pivotal to learning and practice as well as physical and mental health. 1 Studies have suggested that insufficient sleep, increased frequency of short-term sleep, and going to sleep late and getting up early affect the learning capacity, academic performance, and neurobehavioral functions. 2 , 3 Previous studies have indicated that the quantity of sleep reported by individuals as delayed or inappropriate sleep, waking up too late, especially at weekends and daytime sleepiness is associated with compromised academic performance in children and adults. 2 Some studies have emphasized the relationship between delayed starting time of classes and academic success. 4 Reduced overnight sleep or altered sleep patterns has been associated with severe drowsiness and failure in academic success. 5 In a study, people who had enough sleep compared to their sleep-deprived individuals used innovative solutions twice as often when confronted with complex mathematical problems. 6 The chance of academic failure was as long as one or more than 1 year in students with inadequate sleep compared to those with proper sleep. 7 People who sleep less and sleep during the day are more prone to vehicle and work accidents. 8 In some studies, sleep efficiency has been considered as essential for recovery, cognitive processing, and memory integration. 9 On the other hand, lack of sleep has been associated with emotional instability and impaired concentration. 10 In this regard, students are particularly at risk of developing sleep disorders and development of the disorder among them has a negative effect on their academic performance across different grades, 11 – 13 However, there is no consensus in this case and not all studies state that sleep disorders yield a negative effect on academic performance. Eliasson (2010) believes that the time it takes to fall asleep and waking up affect academic performance more than duration of sleep does. 14 Sweileh and colleagues (2011) also believe that there is no relationship between sleep quality and academic success. 15 Similarly, it is claimed there is no relationship between the night sleep before the exam and test scores either. 16

In another study, the author believes stress from lack of sleep causes poor school performance. 17 On the other hand, in a systematic review, the authors could not establish a cause and effect relationship between sleep quality and academic performance. 2 In their meta-analysis study, Dewald and colleagues (2010) emphasized that because of the diversity of the methodology of studies, it is impossible to definitely derive a relationship between sleep quality and academic performance, and thus more longitudinal intervention studies are warranted. 1 According to different conclusions in this respect, the researchers decided to determine the relationship between sleep quality and academic performance among students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences.

In this cross-sectional study, through maximum variation sampling, the first three students with highest scores and three last students with lowest scores were selected, and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was completed for them.

The study population consisted of students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. The samples were also students at each school with the highest GPA (first three high scores) and the lowest GPA (last three lowest scores). The sampling was purposeful sampling with maximum variation. The sample covered a number of disciplines in the third semester and above ( Figures 1 & 2 ). After determining the target students, the questionnaire was given to them and then returned to the researcher after completion.

Abundant distribution of students by field of study.

Frequency distribution of students by semester.

The data collection instruments were demographic form (including age, gender, place of residence, grade, rank in the class, discipline) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). PSQI is a self-report questionnaire which examines the quality of sleep. It has 18 questions which are classified into seven components: the first component is the subjective sleep quality which is determined with Question 9. The second component is related to delays in falling asleep, where the score is calculated by two questions, the mean score of Question 2 and part of Question 5. The third component deals with sleep duration and is determined by Question 4. The fourth component is related to the efficiency and effectiveness of sleeping in patients. Its score is calculated via dividing the total hours of sleep by total hours in the bed multiplied by 100. Then, the fifth component deals with sleep disorders and is achieved by calculating the mean value of Question 5. The sixth component is related to hypnotic drugs and is determined based on Question 6. Finally, the seventh component captures inadequate performance throughout the day and is determined by two questions (mean scores of Questions 7 and 8). Each question is rated between 0 and 3 points where maximum score for each component is 3. The total scores range of the seven components making up the total score range from 0 to 21. Higher scores represent a lower sleep quality, where a score above 6 indicates poor sleep quality. The reliability and validity of this inventory have also been approved in Iran, where the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.78 to 0.82. 18 In another study, Cronbach’s alpha for the Persian version was 0.77. In cut-off point 5, the sensitivity and specificity were 94% and 72%, and in cut-off point 6, they were 85% and 84%, respectively. 19

After collecting the questionnaires and introducing students’ demographic data to a computer using SPSS version 16, the relationship between sleep quality scores and grade point average (GPA high and low) was calculated.

The results indicated that 34 cases (33.3%) of the subjects were male. The mean age of the sample 23.10 ± 3.25, where the mean age for females was 22.46± 2.44 and for males was 24.38± 4.19. The participants in the study came from various disciplines including laboratory science, medicine, pharmacology, emergency medicine, obstetrics, radiology, operating room, health technology, and nursing.

Most students lived in dormitories (50%) and 46.1% at home, with 3.9% living in rental houses. The students' educational level ranged between the third semester and twelfth semester.

Among those participating in the study, 67 patients (65.7%) consumed coffee, 90 cases (88.2%) used tea, and 1 (1%) took a drug.

For comparing the mean scores of students and the component of sleep, Spearman test (non-normal data) was employed, where a significant correlation was observed between GPA and hours taking to fall asleep ( Table 1 ).

The Relationship Between Sleep Components and GPA in KUMS Students

Similarly, there was a relationship between sleep components and tea, coffee, hypnotic drugs, and drug ( Table 2 ).

The Relationship Between Sleep Components and Type of Drink or Drug in KUMS Students Kermanshah

On the other hand, independent t -test between Pittsburgh scores in the two groups did not show any significant differences. Nevertheless, impaired sleep quality was moderate to severe in both groups ( Table 3 ).

The Difference Between the Mean Pittsburg Scores in Two Groups (Students with High and Low GPA)

The results indicated that impaired sleep quality between the two groups was not statistically significant. Although the relationship between sleeping and academic success has been introduced in medical literature since a long time, there still no definitive answer in this case. In a meta-analysis study conducted to examine the impact of sleep quality, sleep duration, and sleepiness on adolescents’ academic performance, although all three variables were related to academic achievement (positive relationship between sleep quality and duration of sleep and negative association with sleepiness), this relationship was very trivial. 1

On the other hand, another systematic review study of descriptive studies concluded that sleep disturbance adversely affects different areas such as general health, social status, and academic performance. However, longitudinal studies are required for a more accurate examination. 20 , 21 In an another systematic review of other authors, the authors concluded that under-sleeping would have an impact on learning of some students, and could have a detrimental effect on academic achievement. 22 Further, another review study also suggests a conclusive recommendation which has to be done to modify sleep so that it can be used for academic success. 23

The present study was conducted to explore whether sleep disorder can influence academic achievement or not. Accordingly, a specific sample of accomplished or unachieved students were selected to compare the quality and quantity of sleep. However, no significant difference was between the two groups. Other studies have reached similar conclusions.

Sweileh and his colleagues in a study on 400 Palestinian students concluded that academic achievement was not correlated with sleep quality. 15 In another study on 189 medical students in Pakistan, there was no significant association between lack of sleep and test scores. 16 In this regard, there is a possibility of sleep disorder in students, and this possibility has been expressed for the lack of academic achievement, but it has not been clearly explained. 11 In another study, sleepiness during the day (not the quality and quantity of sleep) was identified as an independent predictor of academic success. 5 In a similar study again the time it takes to fall sleep and the wake-up time (not the total amount of sleep) were associated with academic success, 14 where the total amount of sleep in adolescents with a dynamic mind was not related to their academic achievement. 24 In contrast to such studies that emphasize lack of association or low association, there are other studies that have observed an inverse relationship between sleep disturbance and academic achievement. In a study on 491 first-, second-, and third-year medical students, there was a correlation between academic performance and the amount of nighttime sleep as well as daytime sleepiness. 25 In a similar study on medical students, lack of sleep at night, late going to bed, and daytime sleepiness had a negative effect on the academic performance of the students. 26 Notably, sleep disturbances are likely to yield a negative impact on academic performance, thereby causing a vicious cycle. 25 , 27 Taken together, the studies suggest that most studies have mentioned poor quality sleep among the majority of students. 3 , 26 , 27 Accordingly, concluding the relationship between common sleep disturbance and academic performance should be done with caution. The reason is that academic success can be affected by different factors including the level of family income, the evolutionary process, intake of supplements and vitamins, family size, social media dependency, addiction to social networks, and social issues. In studies these extraneous factors are not under control, thus emphasizing the fact that the presence or absence of correlation between sleep quality and academic performance should be done with caution and using longitudinal studies.

Limitations

The main limitation of this study was the small sample size, but a specific sampling method was chosen to overcome this shortcoming. Another limitation of the study was not controlling for confounding factors in the study. Based on the results of this study and similar studies, further research should be conducted with a better design.

The results indicated no significant difference between sleep quality in achieved and unachieved academic performance. Nevertheless, to conclude with more certainty, longitudinal studies should be performed to control confounding factors.

Acknowledgments

The authors of this article appreciate the collaborations of the Sleep Disorders Research Center.

Funding Statement

Funding for this research was provided by the Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Sleep Disorders Research Center (93026).

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

Informed consent obtained from all participants in the study and this study conducted by the Sleep Disorders Research Center. Identity letter obtained from deputy of research and technology to collecting data. Ethics approval was received from the ethics committee of deputy of research and technology – Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, number 93026 on 6 April 2013.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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

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• Published: 10 April 2023
• Volume 21 , pages 377–383, ( 2023 )

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• 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  

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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.

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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.

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• 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  

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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Sleep and Academic Performance

Consistent and quality sleep is the key..

Posted August 29, 2020 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

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The onset of the pandemic has been associated with a precipitous decline in sleep consistency and sleep quality (Altina et al., 2020, Sleep Standards, 2020). Fully 76.8 percent of North American adult respondents to surveys on reactions to the pandemic report that the coronavirus outbreak has adversely affected their sleep-wake schedules, with 58 percent reporting that they sleep less consistently and have lost at least one hour per night in sleep since the outbreak started. Disturbed dreaming and nightmares are frequent complaints, as is the inability to focus, concentrate, get motivated, or study during the day. Sleep is essential for these very functions (Hale, Troxel, and Buyyse, 2020; Ujma et al., 2020).

Even small amounts of sleep deprivation significantly degrade these learning-related cognitive functions. Sleep-related learning deficits, furthermore, are exacerbated when the student is challenged with self-paced and self-motivated learning requirements, as is the case in many online learning environments. Sleep measures most tightly associated with learning and memory , and thus academic performance, include sleep consistency (how likely a student is to be awake or asleep at the same time each day), sleep awakenings, disturbed dreaming and overall sleep quality, all measures relatively neglected in the earlier literature (Hershner, 2020; Fonesca et al., 2020).

Among college students, each additional day per week with sleep/dream disturbances increases the probability that students will drop a course by 14 percent and lower GPA (grade point average) approximately 0.02 points (Okano et al., 2020, Toscano-Hermosa et al., 2020). Sleep consistency, rather than absolute sleep duration, appears to be a particularly potent predictor of academic performance among college students (Okano et al., 2019; Philips et al., 2017). Okano et al. reported that sleep duration, consistency, and quality for the month and the week before an academic test correlated with better grades and accounted for nearly 25 percent of the variance in academic performance.

Philips et al. found that consistent/regular vs irregular sleepers evidence significantly higher GPAs despite reporting similar sleep durations. An increase of 10 points in their sleep consistency scale is associated with an increase of 0.1 in the GPA. Sleep inconsistency is also associated with a greater risk of sleep disorder diagnoses. Surveys show that up to a third of college students carry sleep disorder diagnoses and that these students are at greater risk for lower GPAs and school drop-out (Toscasno-Hermosa et al., 2020; Fonesca et al., 2020). Sleep disturbances (inconsistent sleep, frequent awakenings, disturbed dreaming) regardless of sleep disorder diagnosis, are associated with higher drop-out rates and lower GPA in college students.

In addition to sleep consistency, sleep quality is strongly associated with academic performance (Toscano-Hermosa et al., 2020; Hershner, 2020). The most commonly used measure of sleep quality, the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index defines it as optimal sleep-wake schedules, sleep duration, sleep latency, number of arousals, and perceived depth of sleep. Poor sleep quality is frequently reported by college students, with minority and disadvantaged students reporting the most severe and most persistent poor sleep quality (Johnson et al., 2019). Poor sleep quality in these students significantly predicts decreased academic performance. In summary, sleep is essential for optimal cognitive performance. Sleep consistency and self-report sleep quality are most strongly associated with academic performance.

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89 Sleep Deprivation Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best sleep deprivation topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 simple & easy sleep deprivation essay titles, 👍 good essay topics on sleep deprivation, ❓ sleep deprivation research questions.

• Problem of Sleep Deprivation This is due to disruption of the sleep cycle. Based on the negative effects of sleep deprivation, there is need to manage this disorder among Americans.
• How Sleep Deprivation Affects College Students’ Academic Performance The study seeks to confirm the position of the hypothesis that sleep deprivation leads to poor academic performance in college students. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Effects of Sleep Deprivation While scientists are at a loss explaining the varying sleeping habits of different animals, they do concede that sleep is crucial and a sleeping disorder may be detrimental to the health and productivity of a […]
• The Issue of Chronic Sleep Deprivation The quality of sleep significantly impacts the health and performance of the human body. These findings point to significant promise for the use of exercise in the treatment of sleep disorders, but a broader body […]
• The Influence of Sleep Deprivation on Human Body It contradicts living in harmony with God, as when the person is irritated and moody, it is more difficult to be virtuous and to be a source of joy for others.
• Sleep Deprivation and Insomnia: Study Sources The topic of this audio record is a variety of problems with sleep and their impact on an organism. They proved the aforementioned conclusion and also paid attention to the impact of sleep deprivation on […]
• Neurocognitive Consequences of Sleep Deprivation The CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord while the PNS consists of all the endings of the nerve extensions in all organs forming the web that extends throughout the entire organ.
• “Childbirth Fear and Sleep Deprivation in Pregnant Women” by Hall To further show that the information used is current, the authors have used the APA style of referencing which demand the naming of the author as well as the year of publication of the article/book […]
• Sleep Deprivation and Learning at University It is a widely known fact that numerous people face the problem of lack of sleep. Second, sleeping is essential for increasing the productivity of students in the context of learning.
• Sleep Deprivation: Biopsychology and Health Psychology Another theory that has been proposed in relation to sleep is the Circadian theory which suggests that sleep evolved as a mechanism to fit organisms into the light dark cycle of the world.
• Sleep Disorders: Sleep Deprivation of the Public Safety Officers The effects of sleep disorders and fatigue on public safety officers is a social issue that needs to be addressed with more vigor and urgency so that the key issues and factors that are salient […]
• Sleep Deprivation: Personal Experiment As I had been perplexed, I did not take a step of reporting the matter to the police neither did I inform my neighbors.
• Sleep Deprivation: Research Methods The purpose of the research will be to determine sleep deprivation, what causes it, the effect, and why sleep is important.
• Sleep Deprivation and Specific Emotions The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of the relationship between sleep deprivation and emotional behaviors. The study looks to create a link between the findings of past researches on the emotional […]
• Sleep Deprivation Impacts on College Students Additional research in this field should involve the use of diverse categories of students to determine the effects that sleep deprivation would have on them.
• What Are The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation For Paramedics
• The Innate Immune System During Sleep Deprivation
• Sleep Deprivation Negatively Influences Driving Performance
• What Effect Does Sleep Deprivation Have on Physiological and Cognition
• Sleep Deprivation And Its Effects On The Lives And Culture Of Different
• The Correlation Between Sleep Deprivation And Academic Performance
• The Importance of Sleep and the Health Impact of Sleep Deprivation in Humans
• Effects of Sleep Deprivation on the Academic Performance of DLSL Account
• The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation Among College Students
• The Dangers and Effects of Sleep Deprivation Among Nurses and the Ways to Prevent the Sleep-Related Problem
• Sleep Deprivation and its Affects on Daily Performances
• The Body Of Knowledge Regarding Adolescent Sleep Deprivation
• Poor Performance in School/Work as a Consequence of Sleep Deprivation
• The Fascinating World of Sleep and the Effects of Sleep Deprivation
• Symptoms And Treatment Of Sleep Deprivation
• Sleep Deprivation And Aggression Among College Students
• The Effects Of Sleep Deprivation On Academic Performance
• Sleep Deprivation On Eating And Activity Behaviors
• Sleep Deprivation: What Causes The Sleeplessness And How Long It Lasts
• The Relationship Between Sleep Deprivation And The Human Body
• Students And Chronic Sleep Deprivation: How School Start Times Can Impact This
• What is Sleep and the Effects of Sleep Deprivation
• Several Health and Behavioral Symptoms of Sleep Deprivation
• Sleep Deprivation, Nightmares, And Sleepwalking
• The Factors That Contribute to Sleep Deprivation and Its Effects on the Sleep Cycle
• The Dangers Of Teen Sleep Deprivation: Benefits Of Adopting Later Start Times For High Schools
• The Issue of Sleep Deprivation, Its Results and Associated Risks
• The Negative Effects of Sleep Deprivation in Human Beings
• The Stages of Sleep and the Effects of Sleep Deprivation
• The Negative Effects of Sleep Deprivation to Mental and Physical Health
• Effects Of Sleep Deprivation On One’s Performance And Function
• How Sleep Deprivation Can Effect Weightlifting Performance
• The Causes of Sleep Deprivation in America: a Nation of Walking Zombies
• The Sleep Deprivation Epidemic Is Affecting Teenagers
• Sleep Matters: The Human Condition in the Midst of Sleep Deprivation
• Sleep Deprivation : The Brain Function And Physical Body
• Sleep Deprivation And Reduction, Sleep Disorders, And The Drugs Used To Treat Them
• The Effects of Total Sleep Deprivation on Bayesian Updating
• The Negative Effects of Sleep Deprivation Among Teens and the Solutions to the Problem
• Light Pollution, Sleep Deprivation, and Infant Health at Birth
• The Effects Of Food And Sleep Deprivation During Civilian
• The Study of Rechtschaffen (1983) on Sleep Deprivation
• How Sleep Deprivation Affects Psychological Variables Related to College Students Cognitive Performance
• Sleep Deprivation : Sleep And The Adverse Effects Of Sleep Disorders
• How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Psychological Health?
• What Effect Does Sleep Deprivation Have on Physiology and Cognition?
• How Does Lack of Sleep Affect Physical Health?
• Does Sleep Deprivation Significantly Interfere With Driving?
• How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Psychological Variables Related to College Students’ Cognitive Performance?
• Are the Brains’ Motor Function Affected by Sleep Deprivation?
• How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Work Performance?
• Does Sleep Deprivation Effect College Students’ Academic Performance?
• How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Cognitive Functions?
• Does Too Much Homework Cause Sleep Deprivation?
• How Can Sleep Deprivation Effect Weightlifting Performance?
• What Are the Effects of Sleep Deprivation for Paramedics?
• How Does Sleep Deprivation Lead to Cardiovascular Disease?
• What Are the Symptoms of Sleep Deprivation?
• How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Health?
• Can Sleep Problems in Patients With Parkinson’s Disease Be About Serotonin?
• How Common Are Sleep Problems in Teenagers?
• What Are the Criteria to Classify Mild, Moderate, and Severe Sleep Deprivation in Humans?
• How to Measure Sleep and Insomnia in Adult Video Gamers?
• What Are the Physiological and Psychological Effects on Sleep of Electronics in the Bedroom?
• Is Bipolar Disease a Sleep Regulation Disorder?
• What Is the Scale on Sleep Deprivation?
• How Does Lack Sleep Affect Physical Health?
• Does Sleep Deprivation Induce by Reward Rather Than Punishment Result in Different Effects?
• How Does Lack of Sleep Affect the Ability to Concentrate, Think and Learn?
• What Are the Main Types of Sleep Disorders?
• Can a Person either Become Sick or Die After Complete Sleep Deprivation?
• What Are Problems Can Sleep Deprivation Lead To?
• Does Sleep Deprivation Cause Permanent Brain Damage?
• How Long Does It Take to Reverse Sleep Deprivation?
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Impact of the lack of sleep on academic performance in college students

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Caffeine and academic performance

Oftentimes as students prepare for exams, they might find themselves not sleeping as much and using caffeine on exam day.

One study looked at whether this would help or not.

What was the study? (1)

• Stepan and colleagues (1), had 276 participants do a  place keeping task (UNRAVEL) and a vigilant attention task (the Psychomotor Vigilance Task [PVT].
• They were then randomly assigned to either stay awake overnight in the laboratory or sleep at home. (1)
• In the morning, participants who slept returned to the lab, and all participants consumed a capsule that contained either 200 mg of caffeine or placebo (1).
• After the caffeine absorption period, they had participants repeat those tasks.

What were the results? (1)

• Investigators (1) found that caffeine helped both groups maintain attention; similar to other studies (2).
• Caffeine DID NOT reduce place keeping errors in either group (1).

What does this mean? (1)

According to this study (1), if you are sleep deprived, caffeine may help you stay awake but may NOT help with academic performance.

What are some caveats?

• Caffeine can also worsen anxiety for some people, which might not help with academic performance.
• This is a small study and further study is needed to verify the results.
• The benefit size may not be enough for everyone.
• Individual results may vary.
• 200mg caffeine may be too much for some people.
• Getting adequate sleep may be a better strategy

What are some helpful strategies for sleep?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine suggests the following ways to improve sleep (3):

• Keep a consistent sleep schedule.
• Get up at the same time every day,  even on weekends or during vacations.
• Don’t go to bed unless you are sleepy.
• Other strategies:
• The national sleep foundation says young adults should plan for 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep per night.
• For in depth strategies to improve sleep, go here (4).

What are some helpful resources for sleep?

• Online Mindfulness practices through OSU Wexner medical center
• OSU SMART Lab for stress management skills.
• OSU Student Life Counseling and Consultation Service
• OSU Student Wellness Center for wellness coaching and related services.
• OSU Wilce Student health center

By Ryan S Patel DO, FAPA

If you would like to be notified of a new post (usually once per month), please enter your email above.

Disclaimer:  This article is intended to be informative only. It is advised that you check with your own physician/mental health provider before implementing any changes. With this article, the author is not rendering medical advice, nor diagnosing, prescribing, or treating any condition, or injury; and therefore claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or injury caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the material presented.

References:

• Stepan ME, Altmann EM, Fenn KM. Caffeine selectively mitigates cognitive deficits caused by sleep deprivation. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2021 Sep;47(9):1371-1382. doi: 10.1037/xlm0001023. Epub 2021 May 20. PMID: 34014758.
• Killgore WDS, Kamimori GH. Multiple caffeine doses maintain vigilance, attention, complex motor sequence expression, and manual dexterity during 77 hours of total sleep deprivation. Neurobiol Sleep Circadian Rhythms. 2020 May 31;9:100051. doi: 10.1016/j.nbscr.2020.100051. PMID: 33364521; PMCID: PMC7752712.
• http://www.sleepeducation.org/essentials-in-sleep/healthy-sleep-habits
• Patel R. Mental Health For College Students

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