The Role of Environmental Factors on Sleep Patterns and School Performance in Adolescents

Abstract

Background: Modern life, with its many distractions, is seeing sleep quantity and quality decline during adolescence. This is a concern as research persuasively demonstrates the negative impact of reduced sleep on academic achievement, both in terms of learning and behavior.Aims: This study examined the relationship between sleep and school functioning in adolescence, with a focus on environmental factors that might mediate this relationship.Sample and Method: Forty-seven adolescents took part. Sleep was measured using the School Sleep Habits Survey (SSHS) and a sleep diary. School records of year grade point averages provided a measure of academic achievement. Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices gave a measure of general cognitive processing. Environmental sleep factors falling into three groups, namely, stimulant consumption, media use and exercise, were measured using a self-report questionnaire.Results: An average of 7.08 h of sleep was reported. Correlations revealed that Total sleep time (TST) and bedtimes on weekdays were strongly associated with academic achievement. Morning/eveningness and sleep/wake behavior problems had a strong relationship with performance on the Ravens. Stimulant consumption and media use before bed revealed strong relationships with TST and bedtimes on weekdays. Crucially, mediation analyses confirmed that both caffeine consumption and electronic media use before bedtime were negatively associated with academic performance, via the mediating pathway by affecting sleep. Exercise was not associated with any of the sleep variables, but was associated with better academic performance.Conclusion: The current findings highlight that, now more than ever, parents, schools and policy makers must be aware of the negative effects of caffeinated substances marketed to students, and electronic media use on their sleep habits. Our findings suggest that targeting caffeine consumption and electronic media use before bed may represent effective routes in alleviating modern teenage sleep debt, and in turn enhancing academic performance.

Excessive use of mobile devices and children's physical health

“…Overall, these studies suggest that use of technology does adversely impact sleep duration. Ten of the included studies measured bedtime/nighttime media use using various methods, mainly self‐report or parent‐report, and either asked parents or youth to report on the amount of time using screen media before going to bed, or asked if any screens were present in the youth's bedroom (Arora, Broglia, Thomas, & Taheri, ; Dimitriou, Knight, & Milton, ; Dube, Khan, Loehr, Chu, & Veugelers, ; Lemola, Perkinson‐Gloor, Brand, Dewald‐Kaufmann, & Grob, ; Munezawa et al, ; Nathanson & Beyens, , ; Oshima et al, ; Scott & Woods, ; Seo, Kim, Yang, & Hong, ). All studies that focused on nighttime use specifically found that social media, tablet, or smartphone use was associated with shorter sleep duration.…”

Number of Hours of Sleep with Changes in Blood Pressure Amongst Medical Students in Western Maharashtra

“…Dagmara Dimitriou, et al [2] in their study have stated that stimulant consumption and gadget usage before going to bed decreases the number of sleeping hours and hampers the quality of sleep. They also stated that decreased sleep can attributed as one of the causes of hypertension.…”

“…Sleep is a condition of body and mind which typically recurs for several hours every night, in which the nervous system is inactive, the eyes are closed, the posture muscles relaxed, and consciousness practically suspended [1]. Blood pressure is the pressure of blood in the circulatory system, often measured for diagnosis since it is closely related to the force and rate of the heart beat and the diameter and elasticity of the arterial walls [2].…”

Morningness-eveningness and Fatigue in Adolescence

“…Nadalje, roditeljski nadzor se smanjuje u brojnim aspektima života mlade osobe, pa tako i nad vremenom odlaska na spavanje i načinom provođenja vremena prije spavanja (5,7). Nemali broj adolescenata do kasnih noćnih sati provodi vrijeme na internetu ili čak ostavljaju tijekom noći uključen mobitel kako bi u svakom trenutku bili dostupni vršnjacima (12), a istraživači naglašavaju da upravo gledanje TV-a i socijalno druženje na internetu neposredno prije spavanja može povećati fiziološku pobuđenost i otežati uspavljivanje (24).…”

“…Furthermore, parental supervision is reduced in many aspects of life of the young person and thus also in the control of bedtime and the time spent before it (5,7). A large number of adolescents spend late night hours on the Internet or even leave their cell phones turned on during the night to be available at all times (12), and researchers point out that watching television and socializing on the Internet before bed can increase psychological arousal and cause sleep difficulties (24).…”