Chronic sleep reduction is associated with academic achievement and study concentration in higher education students.

Inadequate sleep impairs cognitive function and has been associated with worse academic achievement in higher education students; however, studies that control for relevant background factors and include knowledge on sleep hygiene are scarce. This study examined the association of chronic sleep reduction (i.e. symptoms of chronic sleep reduction such as shortness of sleep, sleepiness and irritation), subjective sleep quality and sleep hygiene knowledge with academic achievement (grades and study credits) and study concentration among 1378 higher education students (71% female, mean age 21.73 years, SD = 3.22) in the Netherlands. Demographic, health, lifestyle and study behaviour characteristics were included as covariates in hierarchical regression analyses. After controlling for significant covariates, only chronic sleep reduction remained a significant predictor of lower grades (last exam, average in current academic year). Better sleep quality and sleep hygiene knowledge were associated with better academic achievement, but significance was lost after controlling for covariates, except for a remaining positive association between sleep hygiene beliefs and grades in the current academic year. Moreover, better sleep quality and lower scores on chronic sleep reduction were associated with better study concentration after controlling for significant covariates. To conclude, chronic sleep reduction is associated with academic achievement and study concentration in higher education students. Inadequate sleep hygiene knowledge is moderately associated with worse academic achievement. Future research should investigate whether sleep hygiene interventions improve academic achievement in students of higher education.

The influence of sleep quality, sleep duration and sleepiness on school performance in children and adolescents: A meta-analytic review.

Insufficient sleep, poor sleep quality and sleepiness are common problems in children and adolescents being related to learning, memory and school performance. The associations between sleep quality (k=16 studies, N=13,631), sleep duration (k=17 studies, N=15,199), sleepiness (k=17, N=19,530) and school performance were examined in three separate meta-analyses including influential factors (e.g., gender, age, parameter assessment) as moderators. All three sleep variables were significantly but modestly related to school performance. Sleepiness showed the strongest relation to school performance (r=-0.133), followed by sleep quality (r=0.096) and sleep duration (r=0.069). Effect sizes were larger for studies including younger participants which can be explained by dramatic prefrontal cortex changes during (early) adolescence. Concerning the relationship between sleep duration and school performance age effects were even larger in studies that included more boys than in studies that included more girls, demonstrating the importance of differential pubertal development of boys and girls. Longitudinal and experimental studies are recommended in order to gain more insight into the different relationships and to develop programs that can improve school performance by changing individuals' sleep patterns.