College Student Sleep Statistics

The importance of getting a good night’s rest seems like nothing new. However, research shows just how important it may really be to college students’ success — the difference of a letter grade. This is especially true for first-year students who are most vulnerable to sleep deprivation.

This report covers how much sleep college students get on average — including average bedtimes and waking hours, the correlation between sleep and grades, and how much sleep students need.

According to a 2019 study in the journal NPJ Science of Learning, on average, college students went to sleep at 2 a.m. and woke up at 9 a.m.^{Note Reference [1]}

Sleep factors, including bedtime consistency, better quality, and longer sleep duration, accounted for almost a 25% variance in academic performance.^{Note Reference [1]}

In the 2019 NPJ Science of Learning study, 88 students in an introductory college chemistry class wore Fitbit activity trackers over a period of 14 weeks to collect sleep data.^{Note Reference [1]} Researchers found there to be a significant positive correlation between average sleep duration over the course of a month with assessment scores.

Despite the argument that students can get more study time in by staying up longer, the study found that there was no correlation between a single night of sleep and test performance the following day.^{Note Reference [1]} This suggests that pulling an all-nighter to study does not have a positive impact on grades.

Sleep deprivation did not only impact academic performance. Massachusetts Institute of Technology research scientist Kana Okano also cited a study conducted by Dawson and Reid (1997) that showed how the cognitive abilities of a person who stayed awake for 17 hours were equivalent to those of a person who had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%, suggesting that a sleep-deprived person exhibits characteristics of cognitive impairment.^{Note Reference [1]}

According to spring 2009 data collected by the American College Health Association of 55,322 students, each additional day per week an undergraduate student experienced sleeping problems (e.g., difficulty falling asleep or waking up), their cumulative GPA decreased by 0.02 points.^{Note Reference [2]} Further, the likelihood of dropping a course increased 10%.

First-year students were especially vulnerable to sleeping issues. Sleep researcher and professor of neuroscience and psychology Roxanne Prichard cited an interview conducted by Foulkes, McMillan, and Gregory (2019) of first-year students and how some attributed the noise and social life at first-year residential halls to being disruptive to their sleep.^{Note Reference [2]} In addition to disruptive sleep, first-year students also often have the earliest morning classes.

As stated in a joint consensus statement by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society, adults between the ages of 18-60 years old should be getting roughly 7-9 hours of sleep per night.^[6] This range was based on a review of over 5,000 scientific articles.

Duration is just one piece of the equation, however, and researchers emphasize the importance of sleep quality and regularity. Sleeping less than seven hours regularly is associated with several health risks, including weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, and depression. It is also known to impair immune function and everyday performance of tasks.

Just like every aspect of physical and mental health, sleep needs are influenced by genetic, behavioral, medical, and environmental factors and vary by individual.^{Note Reference [6]}