Sleep and the Effect on Grades
There is a growing body of literature that shows that early mornings may be detrimental for school children, particularly teenagers, in terms of performance on tests and learning in general. This evidence is starting to cause a stir in the education reform crowd as people wonder whether it makes sense to have such early start times across the country (with many places starting at 8AM or even earlier). Instead, it may be more productive to start school a little later.
A new study shows that even 20 minutes more sleep can make a noticeable difference, particularly in math and English grades as observed via report card grades. The conclusion of the authors in this case was the simpler fix- that parents should prioritize their children’s sleep- a change that is of course much quicker and easier to make than have the school systems change. When it comes to high school students, though, there will certainly need to be an education factor in terms of making them understand why it is important that they go to sleep early.
The researchers in this study actually implemented a sleep education program for two groups of elementary school students in the Montreal area. There were six interactive classes, each lasting 2 hours, in which students were taught about good bedtime routines, sleep hygiene, and what happens when you get poor sleep. There was also follow up with parents via letters and training for school staff and administration.
The total number of students participating in the trial was 71- 46 in the sleep intervention group and the remainder in the control group. The researchers saw positive results due to the broad spectrum education and the implementation process of the intervention. At the end of the program, those who were in the intervention group had slept for an average of 18.2 minutes longer than controls, fell asleep 2.3 minutes quicker, and slept for more of the time they were in bed each night. There was an improvement of more than 2 percentage points on report cards (from a 100 point scale) in the intervention group compared to the control group which actually had slightly lower grades at the end of the study.
This is the first study of its kind in that it goes beyond showing the impact of sleep on daytime performance by quantifying it to a very relevant endpoint- grades. The interesting thing is, however, that there have been other attempts to create interventions aimed at improving sleep to increase grades, but most other tries have not been successful. The researchers believe this is the first program of its kind to show efficacy and it is possible that is due to the multifactorial approach in terms of education of different stakeholders- parents, students, and school personnel.
As with all scientific studies, there are limitations and further research is needed to increase generalizability and applicability to real-world situations. One of the cited limitations is that the study was limited to a specific geographic area. A more national study may show interesting differences between different parts of the country. A second drawback was the fairly small number of students enrolled- a large body of students would be more telling. When it comes to trying to make changes in the real world based off the study findings, some of the barriers people find may simply be a lack of time on the part of parents and teachers to really make these things happen in terms of educating their students and making sure that they understand the benefits of a good night of sleep. Once that barrier is overcome, we may see very promising results.
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