The Importance of Sleep for Students: Boosting Health and Academic Performance

No one wants to leave a high school football game during the fourth quarter, especially when your team needs only a field goal to win. Your team kicks and scores, but rather than going home to sleep, you celebrate with your classmates into the morning.

Going to bed is the last thing on your mind after your school’s victory, but sometimes “Friday Night Lights” needs to be more like Friday night lights out.

If you’re a parent, advising teenagers and even college kids on the subject of healthy sleep habits and making sleep a priority can be particularly difficult. After all, as far as they are concerned, they are invincible, just like you were at that age following a Friday night game.

How Much Sleep Do High School and College Students Need?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that young people aged 13-18 obtain between eight and 10 hours of sleep every 24 hours. [1] A joint statement of the Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society recommends that healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60 get about seven or more hours of sleep every 24 hours. [2]

These same recommendations have been adopted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [3]

Why is Sleep Important for Students?

During the teen years, the brain essentially goes through what pediatrician Michael Crocetti, M.D. calls a “second developmental stage of cognitive maturation.”(para. 2) [4] Scientists have found a rapid increase in connections between the brain cells during adolescence.

This makes the brain pathways more effective. Major development also occurs in the frontal cortex, the area of the brain that's most responsible for reasoning. [5]

Around puberty, the circadian rhythm, or “biological clock,” begins to change. This is likely due to hormonal changes, which are also responsible for physical changes and dramatic growth spurts. Healthy sleep supports all of these amazing transformations that we see in our young people. [6,7]

Learn more about the importance of circadian rhythm functioning.

High School Sleep Study: Researchers Find Ways to Help Teens Get More Sleep

College Students and Sleep

For college students, the need for sleep decreases to seven hours or more per night. But don’t be fooled. Even though physical growth spurts are over, for the most part, the brain still continues to change.

Many brain changes occur in the parts of the brain that integrate emotion and cognition. Interestingly, the surrounding environment influences the neural connectivity of structures within the brain.

Thus, the new experiences of being in a college dorm, with new people and responsibilities, impact how the brain develops. [8,9]

Between the ages of 18 and 25, the prefrontal cortex and the associated neural mechanisms become more sophisticated. This results in a progressive ability to be more self-aware and to think more clearly before making decisions. [10]

Sleep Statistic: 50% of college students report daytime sleepiness, and 70% report insufficient or poor sleep.

Too Many Young People are Shorted on Quality Sleep

The CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) documented very concerning national trends regarding average sleep durations for high school students. As of 2019, short sleep duration (less than eight hours per night) ranged from 70.1% in Montana to 84.3% in New Jersey.

Thus, greater than seven out of 10 of our high schoolers were deprived of their sleep needs. [11] As for college undergraduates, some estimates indicate that the majority get between 6 and 6.9 hours per night. [12]

Sleep Deprivation in Students

When kids get to high school, the circadian rhythm changes, resulting in a shift in the timing of the sleep/wake cycle. This makes it difficult to fall asleep before 11:00 pm. [13] With the early high school start times, it becomes near-impossible to get that nightly eight to 10 hours of sleep. [14]

The uncompromising school start times, extensive hormonal and brain changes, and the stress of being a teenager create the potential for a very problematic sleep deprivation calamity.

Kids who don’t get enough sleep are at an increased risk for the following:

College students who don’t get enough sleep experience the same detriments as those in high school. Sleep experts have found that sleep problems can affect academic performance in the following ways. To learn more about how to get better sleep as a college student, read our blog: How College Students Can Sleep Better in Their Dorm Room.

• Increased probability of dropping courses
• Cumulative GPA lower by 0.02 points
• Irregular circadian rhythm patterns that are similar to flight traveling of two to three time zones westward [16,17]
• Unfortunately, three-quarters of undergraduates surveyed reported that they didn't receive education about sleep health from their university. [18]

College Sleep Statistic: 80% of college students mentioned that lack of sleep negatively affected their academic performance.

Risks Caused by Students Lack of Sleep

• Adverse Health Outcomes Such as Obesity
• Poor Memory Consolidation
• Difficulty Solving Complex Problems
• Elevated Anxiety and Depression
• Type 2 Diabetes
• Decreased School Performance

How Students Can Optimize Their Sleep

Admittedly, the chronic sleeplessness that our high school and college students are experiencing at the present time is overwhelming. But at Sleepme, we are here to tell you emphatically that there's much you can do as teachers, caregivers, parents, and students to help those you care about get the important sleep they need. Here are just five of the many tips we can offer:

• Maintain the same sleep/wake schedule–even on weekends.
• Create a calming, cooling sleep environment.
• Structure your day and plan ahead to help improve your study skills to avoid last-minute crams and all-nighters.
• Learn about your individual sleep patterns.
• Get some sunshine in the morning (this knocks out the sleep hormone, melatonin).
• Re-evaluate daily schedule to make time for sleep.

Students Should Avoid or Reduce the Following

Students should avoid or reduce the following to enhance their academic performance and well-being.

• Limit rigorous exercise before bedtime.
• Cut back on caffeine consumption after 3 p.m.
• Refrain from eating large meals before bedtime.
• Stop using electronics before bedtime such as TV, video games, computers, etc.
• Abstain from smoking cigarettes; it can inhibit sleep.
• Avoid alcohol consumption before bedtime.
• Limit all-nighters studying for an exam.

Final Thoughts

The rewards of raising the next generation of healthy sleepers are endless, including excellent physical and mental health, chronic disease prevention, and academic excellence.

Although people ages 13 to 24 are challenged by sleep deprivation and other sleep problems, there are several ways to improve overall sleep health.

We all have the capability to spread the word to our schools and universities about the importance of sleep education.

Sleepme is a community of like-minded people facing similar struggles. We offer personalized sleep education resources and helpful tools from hand-picked experts.