Sleep habits affect academics
- posted: 02 Oct. 2007
- scrollnews@byui.edu
Although college and late nights may go together like peanut butter and jelly, a recent USA Today study shows a possible link between lack of sleep and poor academic performance. However, an unofficial Scroll survey of 120 students shows this may not be the case at BYU-Idaho.
Students who said that they slept eight to 10 hours a night had a slightly lower GPA, ranging from 3.21-3.46, compared to those with less sleep.
Dave Holland, a certified nurse practitioner at the Student Health Center, had thoughts on why more sleep would result in lower grades in the poll.
“A student should get seven to eight hours of sleep, as stated by most sleep specialists. Too much sleep is not good either, so it is a balance, as most things in life are,” Holland said.
BYU-I students who snoozed only two to four hours a night reported an average GPA of 3.4-3.65, the highest of any group.
Some students were not surprised.
“I don’t think the lack of sleep affects your grades,” said Caroline Timoteo, a freshman studying psychology. “I would stay up until 2 a.m. to study, go to take the test, have the information fresh in my mind and get A’s.”
However, these results may not be an accurate assessment of a student’s knowledge.
“Cramming involves using short-term memory to pass a test. Most information learned through cramming extinguishes after 72 hours,” according to studies at Michigan Tech University.
Nevertheless, 73 percent of the sample of BYU-I students admit to “pulling an all-nighter” at least once a semester, and 34 percent confess they do it once a month.
Some students opt to play it safe.
“I go to bed every night at 11:30 p.m. even though my roommates stay up really late,” said Brad Blodgett, a freshman studying history, “When you don’t sleep, your mind tends to wander, and you are more prone to forget things.” 
