This chapter presents the literature and studies related to the present study. The first chapter focuses on the related literature of the problem being investigated. The second part is about the related studies that were conducted before by some researchers.
Related Literature
Research up to this point has shown that sleep is rarely, if at all, significantly decreased by activities such as academic time and work. Yet, media outlets continually publish stories characterizing society as losing more and more sleep each year. Over a seven year period, sleep has actually increased about 14 minutes a day. This dichotomy between reality and sentiment could lead to a variety of interpretations. Research shows that the public sentiment of sleep loss could be a result of a “time crunch” which is caused by increased stressors; thus, people could feel more tired despite sleeping more than previous years. This time crunch seems to be more evident in those that are involved in a variety of activities and often find themselves ‘multitasking’ (Michelson, 2014). Yet, a further investigation into this notion of a time crunch shows that people tend to grossly underestimate the amount of free time and overestimate paid work time (Robinson & Michelson, 2010). Compared to those with the lowest academic performance, students with the highest performance had significantly earlier bedtimes and wake times. Napping tended to be more common among high performers. Of importance, there were no significant differences in total sleep time with or without naps, weekend sleep habits, study time, gender, race, and reasons for staying up at night, nor in use of caffeinated beverages, over-the-counter stimulant pills, or use of prescription stimulants (Eliason et al., 2010).
A percentage of 21% of poor sleepers failed 1 or more years at school, while similar problems were observed in just 11% of normal sleepers. Moreover, school achievement difficulties resulted more frequent in poor than in normal sleepers. One of the best predictors for this low school achievement has been identified in children’s fatigue, i.e. difficulties in morning arousal and the need for afternoon naps. As an indirect link between sleep and academic performance, it was shown that students with more regular sleep-wake patterns (shorter sleep latencies, fewer night awakenings, later school rise times, and earlier rise times on weekends) reported higher GPA, whereas students with lower grades reported increased daytime sleepiness, also as a consequence of shorter sleeping nights. An important contribution was offered by Wolfson and Carskadon (2009), who studied (by means of a health and behavior survey with self-reported grades) sleep patterns and daytime functioning in about 3000 high school students. They showed that students with higher grades reported more total sleep, earlier bedtimes on school nights and reduced weekend delays of sleep schedules than students with lower grades. These data of better performance as a consequence of ‘hygienic’ sleep patterns were confirmed by several studies indicating a poorer school achievement, a greater tendency to fall asleep in school, more difficulties in concentration and in focusing attention in students with an evening circadian typology, earlier school starting times, and a mild delayed sleep phase syndrome.
Sleep deficits associated with early school start times may translate into poor school performance. A 1-hr delay in middle school start times (8:30) was associated with improved student performance on tests of attention and impulsivity compared to students attending school at the regular time (7:30); these improvements disappeared after the experimental group returned to the normal start time (Lufi, Tzischinsky, ; Hadar, 2011). When schools in Wake County, North Carolina, delayed school start times, Edwards (2012) compared student performance on standardized tests of math and reading before (1999) and after (2006) the delay. A 1-hr delay in middle schools and high schools was related to improved test scores on math and reading (Edwards, 2012). Effects were especially strong for students with lower test scores. Notably, this study found no effects of school start times on elementary school students’ performance.
According to Alsaggaf et al., (2016) on their study ”Sleep quantity, quality, and insomnia symptoms of medical students during clinical years, Relationship with stress and academic performance” students acquired an average, 5.8 hours of sleep each night, with an average bedtime at 01:53. Approximately 8% reported acquiring sleep during the day, and not during nighttime. Poor sleep quality was present in 30%, excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in 40%, and insomnia symptoms in 33% of students. Multivariable regression models revealed significant associations between stress, poor sleep quality, and EDS. Poorer academic performance and stress were associated with symptoms of insomnia.
According Cuirco et al. (2006) wherein the findings strongly suggest that: (a) students of different education levels (from school to university) are chronically sleep deprived or suffer from poor sleep quality and consequent daytime sleepiness; (b) sleep quality and quantity are closely related to student learning capacity and academic performance; (c) sleep loss is frequently associated with poor declarative and procedural learning in students; (d) studies in which sleep was actively restricted or optimized showed, respectively, a worsening and an improvement in neurocognitive and academic performance. These results may been related to the specific involvement of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in vulnerability to sleep loss. Most methodological limitations are discussed and some future research goals are suggested.
Adolescents with self-reported sleep disturbances had an increased risk for academic failure compared to adolescents without self-reported sleep disturbances. In addition, adolescents who reported short sleep duration on both working and weekend days were more likely to fail at least one subject at school than those who slept at least 7–8?h per night. (Titova et al., 2015)
A study underscores the importance of sleep quality on better academic performance. Future studies need to identify the possible factors which influence sleep quality other than the academic environment repeatedly reported by other literature. It is imperative to design and implement appropriate interventions to improve sleep quality in light of the current body of evidence to enhance academic success in the study setting. Moreover, students with better sleep quality score achieved better on their academic performance while sleep duration was not associated with academic performance in the final model (Lemma et al., 2014).
A large multi-country study in Europe (Sarchiapone et al. 2014) Demonstrated that adolescent girls sleep less, on average, than boys. Although earlier pubertal onset for females (and, thus, earlier onset of circadian phase delay) is seen as a reason adolescent girls might get less sleep. the observation that, while weekday bedtimes are the same across genders, female youth report waking up earlier than males is taken as evidence that perhaps increased personal preparation and/or household responsibilities in the morning before school also contribute to reduced sleep among female teens.
Related Studies
According to Iqbal et al. (2018), disturbance in sleep affects academic performance adversely. Decreased sleep duration affects the academic performance more adversely as compared with the increased sleep duration. Sleep disturbances are an important issue among medical students and residents.
A significant difference between the excellent and average groups was found for overall sleep quality, subjective sleep rating, bedtime later than midnight, sleep latency, and daytime dysfunction (during driving, preparing a meal, etc.). No differences were found between groups for the use of sleep medications. The mean sleeping hours was and for the excellent and pass groups respectively A significant difference between the excellent and average groups was found for weekday and weekend bedtime, weekend wake-up time, and weekend wake-up delay. No differences were found between groups for the weekday’s wake- up time, and bedtime delay during weekends. Besides, snoring was present in 9.2 % of the excellent group versus 28 % in pass group (Mirghani et al., 2015).
A high prevalence of sleep disorder was found in this group of students, specifically female students. Analysis of the relationship between sleep disorder and academic performance indicates a significant relationship between abnormal ESS scores, total sleeping hours, and academic performance. Sleeping between 6–10?h per day was associated with normal ESS scores as well as the academic grades. Abnormal ESS scores were associated with lower academic achievement (Abdulghani et al., 2012).
A number of important biologically based changes in sleep regulation occur during adolescence. Beginning at the onset of puberty, adolescents develop as much as a 2-hour sleep-wake phase delay (later sleep onset and wake times) relative to sleep-wake cycles in middle childhood.1,2 These changes are associated with delayed evening onset of melatonin secretion and are expressed as a shift in circadian phase preference from “morningness” to “eveningness.” Alterations in the regulatory homeostatic sleep drive during adolescence 3,4 are such that the accumulation of sleep propensity during the time awake appears to be slower relative to younger children. Thus, it is typically easier for adolescents to delay sleep onset. At the same time, adolescent sleep needs do not decrease dramatically, and optimal sleep amounts remain at about 9 to 9¼ hours per night. On a practical level, this means that the average adolescent has difficulty falling asleep before 11 PM, and the ideal wake time is around 8 AM (Owens et al. 2010).
Weekday bedtime was associated significantly with GPA, with adolescents going to bed between 22:00 and 23:00 hours having the best GPA. Also, delayed sleep schedule during weekends was associated with poor academic performance. The associations were somewhat reduced after additional adjustment for non?attendance at school, but remained significant in the fully adjusted models. In conclusion, the demonstrated relationship between sleep problems and poor academic performance suggests that careful assessment of sleep is warranted when adolescents are underperforming at school (Hysing et al. 2016).
