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

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.

Sueño y rendimiento académico en estudiantes universitarios: revisión sistemática / Sleep and academic performance in university students: a systematic review

INTRODUCCIÓN: Los estudiantes universitarios tienden a padecer problemas de regularidad, cantidad y calidad de sueño, que pueden afectar a su rendimiento académico. Estos problemas se relacionan con cambios propios de la fase del ciclo vital en la que se encuentran debido a diversos factores: madurativos, del desarrollo psicosocial (asociados con los procesos de individuación y socialización) y académicos. El estudio de la relación entre el sueño y el rendimiento académico en estudiantes universitarios es un área de investigación de interés creciente, que ha empezado a ser objeto de estudio en las últimas dos décadas. OBJETIVO: Revisión sistemática de la bibliografía existente sobre la relación del sueño y el rendimiento académico en los estudiantes universitarios. SUJETOS Y MÉTODOS: Se seleccionaron los artículos recogidos en la base de datos PubMed, siguiendo las directrices PRISMA. Se incluyeron los estudios que valoraban muestras de sujetos con una edad media entre 18 y 26 años, publicados en inglés o castellano, durante el período 2000-2019. Posteriormente, se evaluó la calidad de los artículos seleccionados siguiendo la normativa STROBE. RESULTADOS: Se identificaron 30 estudios, que fueron agrupados según distintos aspectos del sueño: somnolencia, duración, experiencia de privación total de sueño, calidad de sueño, cronotipo, regularidad y trastornos del sueño. CONCLUSIÓN: Los resultados de estos estudios sugieren que un sueño inadecuado afecta negativamente al rendimiento académico de los estudiantes universitarios

INTRODUCTION: University students tend to suffer from problems of sleep regularity, quantity and quality, which can affect their academic performance. These problems are related to changes typical of the phase of the life cycle in which they find themselves due to maturational, psychosocial development (associated with the processes of individuation and socialisation) and academic factors. The study of the relationship between sleep and academic performance in university students is an area of research of growing interest, which has started to be studied over the last two decades. AIM: To conduct a systematic review of the existing literature on the relationship between sleep and academic performance in university students. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The articles included in the PubMed database were selected, following the PRISMA guidelines. Studies evaluating samples of subjects with an average age between 18 and 26 years, published in English or Spanish during the period 2000-2019 were included. Subsequently, the quality of the selected articles was evaluated according to the STROBE standard. RESULTS: Thirty studies were identified, which were grouped according to different aspects of sleep: drowsiness, duration, experience of total sleep deprivation, sleep quality, chronotype, regularity and sleep disorders. CONCLUSION. The results of these studies suggest that inadequate sleep has a negative effect on the academic performance of university students