Stress and Burnout Among Graduate Students: Moderation by Sleep Duration and Quality — Summary of an Academic Article

My experience in corporate America and my transition to academia have taught me how important research is, but not in the way academics think. Of course, academics need to conduct research, and the research should be presented in a form easily digestible for the nonacademic. This publication aims to provide an overview of one academic article in less than three minutes.

What it says:

The stress level among graduate students is high, and stress is associated with several adverse outcomes, including burnout.

There was a significant, positive relationship between exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy in a study of more than 2,000 master’s, doctoral, and professional graduate students at two large public universities who slept for 6.4 hours on average per night.

Photo by Isabella and Zsa Fischer on Unsplash

Why it matters:

Stress can be reduced, and graduate student performance can be increased by improving sleep habits. While this is not an earth-shattering finding, it is essential to note that sleep is and most always has been an important part of human functioning. Furthermore, this study was unique, as sleep, in this manner, had not been studied in graduate students.

Reference:

Allen, H. K., Barrall, A. L., Vincent, K. B., & Arria, A. M. (2021). Stress and Burnout Among Graduate Students: Moderation by Sleep Duration and Quality. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 28(1), 21–28.