On the Relationship between Sleep, Stress, and Academic Achievement in Undergraduates

Abstract

Building on existing literature of the effects of sleep behaviors on academic performance, I examine undergraduate university students’ sleep behaviors including quality of sleep, duration of sleep, and stress as influences on academic achievement, measured by students’ self-reported grade point averages (GPA) and their score on their most recent exams. Data was gathered from 369 undergraduate students for analysis of self-reported GPA and 439 undergraduate university students for analysis of exam score. Findings of bivariate and multivariate regression analyses suggest quality of sleep and duration of sleep are not significant influences of academic achievement on either measure (self-reported GPA or score on most recent exam). Findings do suggest a significant negative impact of stress on the second measure of academic achievement (most recent exam score). Taken together, results do not support either hypothesis, thereby indicating other influences may affect academic performance of undergraduate students