The Impact of Sleep
Deprivation on High
School Academic
Performance
Diana Akhmetzyanova
Georgia College & State University
theory
• Sleep Deprivation- acute or chronic lack
of sufficient sleep
• Consequences:
• Health problems
• Mood disorders
• Mental performance
• Question: How is a student’s GPA
affected by insufficient amount of sleep?
Previous
literature
• Link and Ancoli-Israel (1995) students with
higher GPA woke up later on school mornings
and took fewer naps.
• Wolfson and Carscadon (1998) students with
higher GPA had more total sleep and earlier
bedtimes on school nights.
• Axelrod, Goebel, and Jaskiel (2012) sleep
deprivation has negative effect on academic,
athletic, and behavioral aspects of student’s
life.
data
National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent
Health
• Wave One: Cross-sectional data collected
during 1994-95 school year among
adolescents in grades 7-12 (9-12) in the U.S.
• Wave Three: Cross-sectional data collected
between August 2001 and April 2002 among
adolescents 18-24 years old
variables
SCHOOL
BEHAVIOR
DEMOGRAPHICS
GPA
SLEEP DEPRIVED
SEX
WANT TO GO
TO COLLEGE
HAPPY AT
SCHOOL
SPORT
FRIENDS
WORKED FOR
PAY
SKIP SCHOOL
HISPANIC
AFRICAN AMERICAN
NATIVE AMERICAN
ASIAN
TOO MUCH TV
ALCOHOL
WEED
NO DAD
DAD WITH COLLEGE
DEGREE
COCAINE
NO MUM
INHALANT
CIGARETTES
MUM WITH
COLLEGE DEGREE
INCOME
Empirical model
GPAi =B0 + B1SDi + B2MALEi +
B3WHITEi+B4NO_DADi +B5DAD_COLLEGEi+
B6NO_MUMi+ B7MUM_COLLEGEi+ B8SPORTi+
B9FRIENDSi+B10WANT_T_Ci +B11HAPPY_A_Si+
B12WORK_FOR_PAYi+ B13HH_INCOMEi+
+B14TOO_MUCH_TVi+ B15SKIP_SCHOOLi+
B16ALCOHOLi+B17WEEDi +B18COCAINEi+
B19INHALANTi + B20CIGSi
+B19AFRICAN_AMERICANi+
B20NATIVE_AMERICANi + B19ASIANi+
B20HISPANICi+ Ei
Summary statistics
N=2,206
VARIABLE
MEAN
STD. DEV.
MIN
MAX
GPA
2.68
.79
0
4
SLEEP DEPRIVED
.13
.34
0
1
MALE
.46
.49
0
1
WHITE
.74
.44
0
1
HISPANIC
.07
.27
0
1
AFRICAN AMERICAN
.23
.42
0
1
NATIVE AMERICAN
.04
.22
0
1
ASIAN
.04
.21
0
1
NO DAD
.25
.44
0
1
DAD COLLEGE
.36
.48
0
1
NO MUM
.03
.18
0
1
MUM COLLEGE
.46
.51
0
1
SUMMARY STATISTICS
VARIABLE
MEAN
STD. DEV.
MIN
MAX
SPORT
.74
.44
0
1
FRIENDS
.91
.29
0
1
WANT COLLEGE
.75
.43
0
1
HAPPY AT SCHOOL
.71
.46
0
1
WORK FOR PAY
.59
.49
0
1
INCOME
48.24
47.09
0
999
TOO MUCH TV
.04
.44
0
1
SKIP SCHOOL
.22
.41
0
1
ALCOHOL
.52
.49
0
1
WEED
.21
.41
0
1
COCAINE
.02
.14
0
1
INHALANT
.06
.24
0
1
CIGS
.15
.36
0
1
RESULTS
R2 = .31
VARIABLE
COEF.
STD. ERROR
P-VALUE
SLEEP DEPRIVED
-.02
.08
0.822
MALE
-.32
.03
0.000
HISPANIC
-.16
.05
0.003
AFRICAN AMERICAN
-.44
.04
0.000
NATIVE AMERICAN
-.09
.07
0.208
ASIAN
.05
.07
0.523
NO DAD
-.03
.04
0.470
DAD COLLEGE
.24
.04
0.000
NO MUM
-.13
.08
0.114
MUM COLLEGE
.23
.03
0.000
SPORT
.01
.03
0.738
results
VARIABLE
COEF.
STD. ERROR
P-VALUE
FRIENDS
-.04
.05
0.438
WANT COLLEGE
.30
.03
0.000
HAPPY AT SCHOOL
.08
.03
0.016
WORK FOR PAY
.04
.03
0.162
INCOME
.01
.001
0.000
TOO MUCH TV
.02
.07
0.793
SKIP SCHOOL
-.18
.04
0.000
ALCOHOL
-.004
.03
0.877
WEED
-.17
.04
0.000
COCAINE
-.05
.10
0.606
INHALANT
-.02
.06
0.743
CIGARETTES
-.21
.05
0.000
conclusion
• No statistical evidence that sleeping less than
7 hours during school affects GPA
• Engagement in “bad” behaviors has negative
effect on GPA
• Weed  -.17
• Cigarettes  -.21
• Students with parents who have college
degree have higher GPA
• Dad College  .24
• Mum College  .23
limitations
• Small sample of sleep deprived individuals
• No data on hours of sleep during weekends
• Variables “Want to go to college” and “Happy
at School” might result in endogeneity bias
Thank you !
Have a Good Night Sleep!