College students who get less sleep on a daily basis are more likely to get bad grades, says a new study.
The Big Point: The study conducted on first-year college students in the United States, titled Nightly Sleep Duration Predicts Grade Point Average in the First Year of College, published in the PNAS journal stated:
“Lower average nightly sleep early in the academic term predicted lower end-of-term GPA. Every hour of lost total average nightly sleep was associated with a 0.07 reduction in end-of-term GPA.”
Night Owls: J David Creswell, Psychology Professor at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University and author of this study, told USNews that the first-year college students who participated in the study slept for around 6.5 hours each night, as opposed to the recommended sleep of 7 hours or more for people in their age group.
Sleeping Patterns: The study published on 13 February, added that the students clocked 6 hours and 29 minutes of sleep each night, with the duration going up to 6 hours and 58 minutes during the weekends. Here are some key patterns that the study found:
Average time to go to sleep: 2:01 am
Average time to wake up: 9:17 am
“Sensitivity analyses using sleep thresholds also indicated that sleeping less than 6 h each night was a period where sleep shifted from helpful to harmful for end-of-term GPA, relative to previous-term GPA.”
Too Much To Do, Too Little Time: The study authors found that for first-year kids who’ve just entered college, there’s pressure to do everything and more – hang out with friends, go to parties, enroll in clubs, study well, and even intern at places – which is what might to fewer hours of sleep for them.
Try This:
Maintain a routine where you try and go to sleep around the same time each night
Avoid coffee around your bedtime
Don’t use your phone when you’re in bed trying to sleep
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