1)
Abstract
Objective: To examine the prevalence of risk for sleep disorders among college students by
gender and age, and their associations with grade point average (GPA). Participants: Participants
were 1,845 college students at a large, southeastern public university. Methods: A validated
sleep disorder questionnaire surveyed sleep data during the 2007–2008 academic year.
Students’ GPAs were obtained from the office of the registrar. Results: Twenty-seven percent of
students were at risk for at least one sleep disorder. African American and Asian students
reported less risk for insomnia and fewer poor sleep practices relative to white and Latino
students. Students reported insufficient sleep and a discrepancy between weekday and
weekend amount of sleep. Students at risk for sleep disorders were overrepresented among
students in academic jeopardy (GPA < 2.0). Conclusions: Many college students are at risk for
sleep disorders, and those at risk may also be at risk for academic failure.
Keywords
academic performance, college students, gender, GPA, sleep disorders, sleep hygiene
College students experience a number of sleep problems, which may impact academic
performance, health, and mood. 1 A common sleep problem among college students is sleep
deprivation and resulting excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). Both biological and social factors
contribute to deprivation. Many college students are older adolescents and are still dealing with
adolescent physiology such as a biologically driven delayed sleep phase. 2 According to the
National Sleep Foundation, 3 59% of adults 18 to 29 years of age describe themselves as nightowls. Unable to fall asleep earlier in the evening, they cannot get enough sleep if they must get
up early. In addition, sleep may be voluntarily sacrificed due to social factors or involuntarily
curtailed because of living in a noisy residence hall or apartment. A typical coping technique for
dealing with sleep deprivation is to attempt to make up for lost sleep by increasing sleep on the
weekends, a practice that actually worsens the problem. 4
Another potential source of EDS that has been less thoroughly examined in this population,
however, is untreated sleep disorders, which may be underdiagnosed among college students.
The International Classification of Sleep Disorders 5 categorizes 3 types of sleep disorders:
dyssomnias (which may produce EDS), parasomnias (which usually are not associated with EDS),
and medical/psychological disorders. The first 2 categories are primary disorders of sleep,
whereas the third category includes conditions that are often associated with disrupted sleep.
The consequences of sleep problems—whether due to insufficient sleep or an untreated sleep
disorder—can be serious. Sleep problems have been associated with deficits in attention and
academic performance, 6 drowsy driving, 7 risk-taking behavior and depression, 8 impaired
social relationships, 9 and poorer health. 10 Wolfson and Carskadon 4 reported that reduced
sleep time, later bedtime and awakening, irregular sleep/wake patterns, and poor sleep quality
negatively impacted adolescents’ school performance. The National Sleep Foundation 3 found
that high school students who reported insufficient sleep or daytime sleepiness also reported
depressed mood and lower grades, whereas 80% of students who reported getting enough
sleep made As and Bs in school. Among college students who carried a full academic load, those
who reported poorer sleep quality were likely to perform worse on academic tests. 11
The impact of sleep loss on academic performance might be subtle. Fifty college students,
deprived of sleep for 1 night, were then asked to solve math addition problems. 12 Participants
selected the difficulty level of the problems. After sleep loss, participants were more likely to
choose easier problems to solve. Extrapolating from these data, students who are chronically
sleepy may limit their future options by choosing easier courses while in college.
The prevalence of sleep disorders in college students has not been established. It is not known
whether reported sleepiness among college students is simply due to insufficient sleep or
whether it might be secondary to an undiagnosed sleep disorder. Although reported sleep
disorders in adults tend to increase with age, 13 they may also occur among college students
frequently enough to warrant screening this population. In addition, sleep patterns or disorders
among college students may vary by gender or race/cultural affiliation. 14 The purpose of the
present study was to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders among college students, to
examine whether race or gender associated with different patterns of sleep disorders, and to
determine whether students at risk for sleep disorders were also at risk for poor academic
performance.
Source 1:
Journal of American College Health
Volume 59, Issue 2, 2010
2)
Adolescents, who experience sleep disturbance or short sleep duration, are less likely to excel in
academics, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Uppsala University.
For the study, the researchers examined more than 20,000 adolescents, aged between 12 and
19 years, from the Uppsala county.
The researchers found that sleep-deprived teens or those suffering from short sleep duration
(less than 7 hours per day) face a heightened risk of failure in school.
The finding suggests that sleep plays a crucial role in adolescents' performance at school.
"Another important finding of our study is that around 30 percent of the adolescents reported
regular sleep problems. Similar observations have been made in other adolescent cohorts,
indicating that sleep problems among adolescents have reached an epidemic level in our
modern societies", said Christian Benedict at the Department of Neuroscience, in a press
release.
The finding is published in the journal Sleep Medicine.
A recent research by American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that getting the right amount
of sleep might keep depression at bay. The researchers said that sub-optimal sleep or too much
sleep can trigger genes linked with the condition and increase the risk for major depression.
"Healthy sleep is a necessity for physical, mental and emotional well-being," President Dr. M.
Safwan Badr said in a press release. "We were surprised that the heritability of depressive
symptoms in twins with very short sleep was nearly twice the heritability in twins sleeping
normal amounts of time. Both short and excessively long sleep durations appear to activate
genes related to depressive symptoms."
The researchers said that doctors need to have a conversation with their patients about their
sleeping patterns to effectively treat depression.
"These results are important because they suggest that sleep deprivation may be a precursor for
major depression in adolescents, occurring before other symptoms of major depression and
additional mood disorders," said principal investigator Dr. Robert E. Roberts, who is also a
professor. "Questions on sleep disturbance and hours of sleep should be part of the medical
history of adolescents to ascertain risk."
Source 2: http://www.universityherald.com
3)
(Reuters Health) - Children who have trouble sleeping tend to do worse in
school than their peers who get a good night's sleep, a new study suggests.
Researchers in Brazil looked at children age seven to 10 who attended Sao
Paulo public schools. They found kids with symptoms of sleep disorders or
sleep breathing disorders earned lower grades than those without
problems sleeping, on average.
Thirteen percent of children with difficulty sleeping had failing grades in
Portuguese, compared to nine percent of those without sleep problems.
Likewise, 25 percent of kids with disrupted sleep had failing math grades,
versus eight percent of children without trouble sleeping.
"Because (symptoms of sleep disorders) and particularly (sleep breathing
disorders) are highly prevalent, we suggest that all health professionals and
educators become aware of this striking effect and take appropriate actions
to solve or mitigate what could very well constitute a public health issue,"
researchers led by Luciane Bizari Coin de Carvalho from the Universidade
Federal de Sao Paulo wrote.
Experts estimate that roughly one-quarter of U.S. children have disrupted
sleep at some point during childhood. Erratic bedtime hours and anxiety,
either at school or at home, may contribute.
Other children may have unrecognized sleep disorders, such as sleep
walking, nightmares or insomnia, or sleep breathing disorders, like sleep
apnea. Some medications, including those for asthma or attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder, can affect sleep. The underlying medical
problems may also cause sleep disturbances.
Poor sleep among children has been tied to obesity, which over the long
term increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. And poor school
performance has been linked to early dropout rates - so the new findings
may have implications beyond getting a good night's sleep, researchers
said.
From 1999 to 2001, the researchers distributed 5,400 questionnaires asking
about symptoms of sleep disorders and sleep breathing disorders to
children in Sao Paulo public schools.
Then they looked at the Portuguese and Math grades of 2,384 children
whose parents filled out and returned the questionnaire.
The study team found about 31 percent of the children had symptoms of
sleep disorders - such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, or feeling sleepy
all the time - and close to 27 percent had sleep breathing disorders. Those
students' grades were significantly lower than the grades of kids without
sleep disorder symptoms.
In Brazil, grades are based on a scale of 0 to 10, with 5 considered passing.
Average Portuguese grades were 6.6 for kids with sleep problems,
compared to 7.1 among those with no sleeping trouble.
Likewise, children with symptoms of sleep disorders or sleep breathing
disorders earned an average grade of 6.3 in Math, compared to 7.1 for
other children, according to findings published in the journal Sleep
Medicine.
Dr. Carl Bazil, a neurologist and director of the division of epilepsy and
sleep at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in New
York City noted that this study fills a research void.
"There's growing information, mainly in adults, that you need good quality
sleep to process and learn new information," Bazil told Reuters Health.
"It stands to reason that, if anything, sleep would be more important in
children, but there's very little information in children about sleep
disturbance and learning."
Research has shown that sleep deprivation might affect certain parts of the
brain, especially the frontal lobes. The frontal lobes control executive
function, which is the ability to make decisions, form memories, plan for
the future and inhibit socially undesirable behavior - like fighting with a
classmate.
However, the new study can't say definitively that sleep problems were to
blame for poor grades, researchers said.
"This study doesn't prove that a sleep disturbance causes decreased
academic performance," Bazil said, "but it shows an association. Basically
every category of sleep disturbance the authors looked at correlated with
decreased academic performance."
The researchers relied on parents' reports of their children's sleep, rather
than bringing kids into a sleep lab overnight, for example.
The study is "far from perfect," Bazil said. But, "It's a first step in
emphasizing that sleep in children is something that's important, not only
to prevent them from being sleepy but to make sure that they learn. I think
this study will help raise awareness that sleep is particularly important in
children."
Source: bit.ly/19ITDb4 Sleep Medicine, online July 8, 2013.
4) https://www.wcu.edu/catcenter_Sleep_and_College_Lilfe.ppt