From ZZZs to As: The Relationship Between Sleep and Academic Success
Read time: 5 minutes
Author: Lorin Harris
Introduction
Sleep is one of the most intriguing subjects to scientists, faceted at the intersection of Health, Psychology and Biology. While many of its components have been thoroughly studied, there is still much we don’t know about brain processes of sleep (like dreaming). One area that has been heavily researched and confirmed important in our daily lives in relation to good quality sleep is its impact on our learning processes, and ultimately, academic success. Despite this, studies have shown 75% of students at another Big 10 school don’t feel as though they are adequately well-rested during the school week (University of Michigan, N.D.).We all remember the night before taking the SATs in school or a big project when teachers would say “get a good night’s sleep!” And we all likely remember how it felt when we didn’t. Lights become too bright, sounds become muffled, and the corner of the room looks like a good place to let our eyes out of focus and daydream. Not getting quality sleep doesn’t only make us feel not great, it can also be detrimental to our cognitive abilities and awareness that allow us to succeed. We’ll dive into three main ways that sleep pipelines to academia, including brain processes that contribute to overall health, how sleep processes stress and separating that from bedtime routines and how sleep is like a loan you can’t pay back. Prioritizing quality rest isn’t just a luxury for those who are less busy and find it easy to snooze fast--it’s a necessity for unlocking full potential in academia and life as a whole.
Sleep: Brain Health, Memory Boost and Disease Defense
Sleep is the prime time for our brains and body to focus on restorative processes that are harder to do when we’re awake, demanding attention from various stimuli all day long. Lowering body temperature and dropping into a peaceful, homeostatic state gives attention to neurological functions that are critical for information processing, stress processing and more. As we all know, memory coincides nicely with learning and studying acts as a test of our memory and information retaining skills in the classroom. The more cognitive attention that can be given to sharpening this function, the better chances at academic success we have. This has a tie to our sleeping process and memory--think of it as the brain’s waste management system. Our brain can develop a buildup, similar to a plaque, of a toxic protein called Beta Amyloid that builds up between frontal lobe and hippocampal brain cells and ultimately kills them. The hippocampus is a critical brain area for memory and learning, so harming cells in this region can be detrimental in memory loss and learning impairment. Research is also beginning to point to how this process may be prevalent in Alzheimer's risks and diagnoses that are earlier onset and aggressive. So, how does this neurology relate to academic success? Consistent quality sleep gives our brain the time it needs to carry out taste like waste management and clear toxic proteins like Beta Amyloid out of our systems so that we have an easier time learning and retaining information during our waking hours. Being young and “student-aged” doesn’t mean we should think that diseases and brain deterioration is too far away for us to be aware of, and our habits build up over a lifetime. Getting good sleep in college and creating good habits and prioritization of rest lessens the likelihood of impairment later on, but also improves memory, concentration and learning abilities in the present moment. Sleep is like a refresh and reset on those critical areas, like the hippocampus, that allow us to succeed in waking hours. (National Institute on Aging, 2020).
The college cold: bad sleep, sickness and missed school—oh my!
Another major aspect of how sleep affects our relationship with academic success is our physical health. Getting sick for the first time at school, whether it be the common cold or full-on flu, is a jarring experience--buying medicine by yourself, not having a parent to take care of you and missing out on the business of each day takes a toll on your mental and physical health. Especially living in the dorms or with friends, sharing everything on a campus makes getting sick feel inevitable. Recovery time can be extended to with constant exposure, trying to power through, or indulging in unhealthy habits like eating or partying. But what does sleep have to do with this? Research shows that good sleep is critical to immune health, and it suggests that the body doesn’t produce as many infection-fighting antibodies when sleep-deprived (Besedovsky et. al, 2011). Even if you get your flu shot and take precautions to not get sick at school, research also shows that vaccines are not as effective as they could be with inadequate sleep habits (Lange et. al, 2003). Poor sleep and poor immune health has a direct negative effect on learning and academic success--being sick can cause missed attendance in classes and clubs for days to even weeks, depending on the severity. Even forcing yourself to go to class when you don’t feel well is the prime setup for a lack of attention and retention of concepts because your body is fighting so hard on making you feel better. You may be able to get to class when you're sick, but it’s not a quality education. Being sick requires even more sleep and rest to feel better, which takes away time from studying and preparing for exams or projects. This altogether lessens the chances of academic success when focus is elsewhere.
Sleep isn’t like the bank
Media and research has described sleep as like a loan you can’t pay back--it isn’t a bank. You can’t truly make up for lost sleep, and shorting it during the weeknights can’t be paid for on the weekends when you can sleep in. But as college students know, it can be really hard to sleep. Staying up late studying, spending time with friends, socializing, anxiety or just plain insomnia can prohibit one from sleeping even if they want to. Being aware of a lack of sleep can also induce stress and anxiety, which in turn, may make it even harder to fall asleep. This can create a type of “sleep debt,” which is when missed sleep (even 30-60 minutes each week) adds up to produce physical and mental symptoms of fatigue, tiredness and impaired memory. Taking naps may aid fatigue and tiredness but it can’t undo the cognitive lag and this affects cognitive skills needed to succeed in lectures/exams like focus, attention, information recall, coding, processing, etc (Newsom & Rehman, 2024).
So, what do we do about all of this? How can we improve our academic success, study habits and student presence through something as biological as sleep? There are various angles to look at this through, and they all involve simple behavior changes. Some serious sleep conditions may involve professional help like therapy or healthcare, but there are steps we can all take to get better sleep--here are three simple tips:
Separate your rest and work spaces→ doing homework or studying in bed can associate rest with work, and keeping those two separate allows for your bed to be a place of sleep and relaxation. Enmeshing those boundaries can induce anxiety when laying there trying to sleep--there has to be a place where you can be free of doing any school/work-related tasks.
Reworking the hour before bed→ Turning off screens and phone time at least an hour before bed helps our bodies naturally relax and adjust to the time that we’re designed to rest. Replacing intense studying or work before bed with an anti-anxiety routine or relaxation routine, consisting of things like reading, lighting a candle, listening to relaxing music, journaling, or meditating can reduce stressful feelings that keep us from sleeping.
Understanding your chronotype→ Everyone has a chronotype--which is the unique biological clock that everyone has that defines when you are naturally inclined to fall asleep. This is more commonly thought of as being an early bird or a night owl--and everyone is different. Understanding that not everyone can fall asleep early and wake up early, or fall asleep late and wake up later, can help to cultivate a sleep schedule that is molded to your biology. This can be helpful when scheduling classes, meetings or time to study--if you tend to sleep earlier and need longer resting time, meeting a study group at 8 may distract from what your body naturally needs. Similarly, if you’re predispositioned to fall asleep later at night from 12:00-1:00, scheduling a class at 9am may harm your sleep schedule and create a domino effect of your chances at succeeding in that class.
References
Besedovsky, L., Lange, T., & Born, J. (2011). Sleep and Immune Function. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3256323/
Lange, T., Perras, B., Fehm, H.L., & Born, J. (2003). doi: 10.1097/01.psy.0000091382.61178.f1.
National Institute on Aging. (2020). Sleep disturbances linked to abnormal deposits of certain proteins in the brain. Retrieved from: https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/sleep-disturbances-linked-abnormal-deposits-certain-proteins-brain#:~:text=During%20the%20 non%2DR%20sleep,beta%2Damyloid%20in%20the%20brain.
Newsom, R. & Rehman, A. (2024). Sleep Debt: The Hidden Cost of Insufficient Rest. Retrieved from: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/sleep-debt-and-catch-up-sleep
University of Michigan. N.D. Successful Students Tend to Sleep More. Retrieved from: https://studentlife.umich.edu/parents/article/successful-students-tend-sleep-more
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