Whoever thought of the saying: “Always remember to fall asleep with a dream and wake up with a purpose” obviously believed a good night’s sleep does wonders for the brain and learning. 

The significance of sleep has not been lost on a research team led by Jeffrey Grossman based at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the United States of America, who investigated whether an association exists between sleep and academic performance. It is well known that sleep helps to consolidate memory, which is an important consideration for students.

One hundred college students studying chemistry were given a wearable activity tracker or Fitbit to measure the duration and quality of their sleep, and this information was related to the academic results they achieved during the semester. Another aspect of the study assessed whether sleep contributed to gender differences in grades. Only the data collected from 88 of the 100 students was analysed for the report. 

The results of this study are very interesting and I recommend you read this free and open access article,  ‘Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students’ published by npj Science of Learning.

Reference

Okano, K., Kaczmarzyk, J.R., Dave, N. et al. Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students. npj Sci. Learn. 4, 16 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-019-0055-z