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A recent survey of university students in Utah has found that students
who habitually go to bed late and sleep late the next day have lower grade
point averages (GPAs) than students with early-to-bed and early-to-rise
sleeping habits.
Researchers
at Brigham Young University in Provo surveyed 184 of the school's freshmen
and found that the later students slept in the morning, the lower their
grades tended to be.
Out of all the factors studied, weekday and weekend
wakeup times had the strongest association with students' GPAs. Each hour
over the average that students slept in on weekdays was associated with
a 0.13-point drop on the GPA (0.0-4.0 scale). A similar correlation was
found for hours spent in bed on weekends, when many students catch up
on sleep.
Eating breakfast
each morning was also associated with higher grades, while
having a night job was associated with lower grades.
Although many would automatically assume that alcohol
consumption was a possible culprit for the connection between late sleeping
and poor grades, since heavy drinking has been shown to damage academic
performance. But the researchers point out that Brigham Young University
is a dry campus where students sign agreements not to drink. "Alcohol-consumption
behavior sufficient to cause morning hangover would be difficult to hide
in the monitored residence halls of this university," the authors
wrote in the report.
Journal of American College Health 2000;
49: 125-130
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