Sleep, considered a luxury by many, is essential for a person's wellbeing. Researchers have found that insufficient sleep increases a person's risk of developing severe medical conditions, such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. Now, a new study by Boston's Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has found that getting sufficient sleep is also the key to improving academic performance.
Jeffrey Grossman, who led the research, was not trying to find the link between sleep and grades when he handed out Fitbits to the 100 students in his introduction to Solid-State Chemistry class. Instead, the professor of Computational Materials Science hoped the popular wrist-worn device which, tracks a person's activity 24/7, would show a connection between physical exercise and academic achievement.
However, the study, published in the journal “Science Learning” on October 1, 2019, discovered a surprising insight. Then was a straight-line relationship between the average amount of sleep a student got and his/her grade on the 11 quizzes, three midterms, and the final exam administered during the semester.
Even more interesting, it was also not sufficient for students to just head to bed early the night before a test. Instead, it's the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matters most.
The time students went to bed each night was similarly important. Those who went to bed in the early hours of the morning performed poorly, even if the total sleep time was the same as a higher - performing student. “When you go to bed matters. Grossman says. If you go to bed after 2, your performance starts to go down even if you get the same seven hours. So, quantity isn't everything.”
