DOES AN INADEQUATE AMOUNT OF SLEEP AFFECT THE GPA OF STUDENTS?

Morgan Fitzpatrick
Nancy Elliott
English 111
October 24, 2013

Does an inadequate amount of sleep affect the GPA of students?

Introduction
Every day, I see the dreary eyes of students walk into school. When I hear kids say they
were up until wee hours of the night, I always wonder how they can pay attention and learn in
class. Does an inadequate amount of sleep affect the Grade Point Average (GPA) of students? I
will define a low GPA as 2.0 and under. My hypothesis is that students who get less than 7
hours of sleep per night will have a lower GPA because their ability to learn, focus, and listen is
lowered due to lack of sleep.
Method
To find data, I surveyed a class of 11th grade students. Out of 27 participants, 11 were
girls and 16 were boys. All participants were Caucasian. I gave each student a piece of paper
asking how many hours of sleep they got per night, their GPA, and their gender. I then compiled
the results onto one sheet of paper.

DOES INADEQUATE AMOUNTS OF SLEEP AFFECT THE GPA OF STUDENTS?

Abstract
Throughout my endeavors in high school, I have noticed my fair share of tired-eyed students.
Yet, I have always wondered how their grades are influenced. Throughout this literature, I tested
the relationship between GPA and hours of sleep a student gets per night. This paper proves the
results of the survey and discusses future questions to be tested.

DOES INADEQUATE AMOUNTS OF SLEEP AFFECT THE GPA OF STUDENTS?

Results

Figure 1

Figure 1

DOES INADEQUATE AMOUNTS OF SLEEP AFFECT THE GPA OF STUDENTS?

Shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 above are the results from the survey. Both females and
males have proven to show a positive correlation between hours of sleep and GPA. The line of
best fit is drawn on the charts below to show the positive relationship. The more sleep a student
gets, the better GPA he/she will receive.
Discussion
My hypothesis was that students who got less than 7 hours of sleep per night will have
lower GPAs. After running a survey, my hypothesis was proven to be true. Most students who
slept less than 7 hours had GPAs less than 2.5. This study really has made me rethink how much
sleep a person needs to be successful at school and in the work place.
Although my survey was anonymous, there still could have been some flaws. Students
may have lied about their GPA because they were unconfident about it. Also, the classroom I
surveyed may have not had an even mix of high and low achievers. Some students may have not
taken the survey seriously and made up their gender and GPA. All of these factors need to be
taken into consideration when analyzing the results.
The findings this report entailed did not surprise me. I have seen students who stay up all
night playing video games and are failing school. I have also seen students stay up all night
studying who fail the test they were studying for due to lack of focus. This scenario leads me to
another question. Does cramming the night before a test improve or decrease test scores? Does
lack of sleep affect personality? All of these questions would be beneficial to research.

CAN INADEQUATE AMOUNTS OF SLEEP AFFECT THE GPA OF STUDENTS?

References
Hacker, D.,& Sommers, N. (2011). A Writers Reference. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins.