Ho, G.W.; Yang, Z.; Xing, L.; Tsang, K.K.-T.; Ruan, H.D.; Li, Y. Nighttime Sleep Awakening Frequency and Its Consistency Predict Future Academic Performance in College Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022, 19, 2933, doi:10.3390/ijerph19052933.
Ho, G.W.; Yang, Z.; Xing, L.; Tsang, K.K.-T.; Ruan, H.D.; Li, Y. Nighttime Sleep Awakening Frequency and Its Consistency Predict Future Academic Performance in College Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022, 19, 2933, doi:10.3390/ijerph19052933.
Ho, G.W.; Yang, Z.; Xing, L.; Tsang, K.K.-T.; Ruan, H.D.; Li, Y. Nighttime Sleep Awakening Frequency and Its Consistency Predict Future Academic Performance in College Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022, 19, 2933, doi:10.3390/ijerph19052933.
Ho, G.W.; Yang, Z.; Xing, L.; Tsang, K.K.-T.; Ruan, H.D.; Li, Y. Nighttime Sleep Awakening Frequency and Its Consistency Predict Future Academic Performance in College Students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022, 19, 2933, doi:10.3390/ijerph19052933.
Abstract
Although the relations between sleep and academic performance have been extensively examined, how sleep predicts future academic performance (e.g., 2 -3 years) remains to be further investigated. Using wearable smartwatches and a self-report questionnaire, we tracked sleep activities of 45 college students over a period of approximate half a month to see whether their sleep activities predicted their academic performance, which was estimated by grade point average (GPA). Results showed that both nighttime sleep awakening frequency and its consistency in the tracking period were not significantly correlated with the GPA for the courses taken in the semester during sleep tracking (current GPA). However, both nighttime sleep awakening frequency and its consistency inversely predicted the GPA for the rest of the courses taken after that semester (future GPA). Moreover, students with more difficulty staying awake throughout the day obtained lower current and future GPAs, and students with lower inconsistency of sleep quality obtained lower future GPA. Together, these findings highlight the importance of nighttime sleep awakening frequency and consistency in predicting future academic performance and emphasize the necessity of assessing the consistency of sleep measures in future studies.
Keywords
sleep; academic performance; grade point average; college students; wearable device; longitudinal; nighttime sleep awakening
Subject
Social Sciences, Psychology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.