Regular sleep 'key to exam success'

12th June 2017 – Students heading into a summer of exams may want to take note - keeping to a regular sleep patterns could give you the edge for better grades.

Researchers in the US found that going to sleep and waking up at around the same time each day is as important as the amount of sleep you get.

Plenty of studies have examined the effect on thinking skills associated with hours of sleep, quality of sleep and when people go to bed and wake up. However, little work has been done on what happens when people sleep regular or irregular hours.

Sleep diaries

A team from Brigham and Women's Hospital recruited 61 full-time undergraduate students from Harvard College. The students kept sleep diaries for a month, which allowed the researchers to compare sleep patterns with academic performance. Average sleep duration ranged from 5.7 to 9.3 hours.

The results, published in the journal Scientific Reports, show that those who kept to more regular bedtime and wake time patterns had, on average, better exam results. They say the amount of sleep was not a factor because average sleep length was similar between the regular and irregular students.

Exam tiredness

One key finding was that those who didn't stick to regular sleep hours experienced a significant shift in their body clock. Measurements taken of melatonin levels found that the sleep and wake cycle hormone was released 2.6 hours later in students with the most irregular sleep patterns, compared to students with more regular sleep patterns.

This meant that lectures or exams at 9am were being faced by students whose internal body clock made them think it was earlier in the morning – a time when they were less mentally equipped.

More natural light

The differences in melatonin levels were linked to the amount of daylight students were getting during waking hours and how much electric light exposure they were getting at night.

Increasing the amount of daytime daylight, and reducing the amount of time spent on electronic light-emitting devices before bedtime could all help improve regular sleep patterns, the researchers conclude.