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Alex Meade

Professor Freeland

English 1201

Due 1 November 2020

The Importance of Sleep in Long Term Academic Success

Something that most students will experience as part of their academic careers would

be staying up all night to study or complete an assignment. I personally have experienced

these frequently as a biology major in an attempt to keep up with course work. While these

occur in many levels of education, I have performed them most during college, and many

people report staying up late or all night to complete work. Highschool students may also

preform ‘all-nighters’ but coursework and homework at that level often has less impact on a

student’s future grades than college coursework does. Now while these may be common

practice to save a grade, how does this lack of sleep effect long term educational performance,

let alone health? Lack of sleep has long term and short-term effects on the brain and body

such as poor memory, poor immune health, depression, and anxiety. These problems along

with poor sleep health contribute directly and indirectly to long term negative school

performance. A poor sleep schedule is a major determining factor for long term success for

people in learning environments.

Sleep is widely accepted as

important but also disregarded as a

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luxury despite being as necessary as eating. It is supported by Colten and Bruce that loss of

sleep and disordered sleep are common but disregarded and this chapter continues on to

explain that consequences of lack of sleep include obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease,

anxiety, and depression (Colten and Bruce). These results are supported also by the results of

Shankar et. al, confirming diabetes obesity and cardiovascular disease are positively

correlated with lack of sleep regardless of age. Sleep is a universal practice and it is not

optional, even though it can be pushed aside for some time. The necessary amount to function

well for adults is 7 to 9 hours. This amount is increased to 9 to11 hours in pre-teens and 8 to

10 hours in teens (Sleep Foundation). These groups are often the ones in educational settings

so sacrificing sleep to get work done repeatedly will clearly affect performance and health.

Lack of sleep has many negative outcomes and one of these outcomes is poor mental health

alongside poor physical health. One of the results would be anxiety. Lack of sleep can cause

anxiety to develop in babies, teens, and adults regardless of age. Babies struggling with sleep

are more likely to display symptoms of emotional disorder and separation anxiety (Ward).

This shows lack of sleep can cause problems early on. Lack of sleep can be tied to anxiety in

adolescence as well, along with depression and depressive mood (Colten and Bruce). While

these connections may also be affected by outside factors, they still share evidence of poor

sleep and poor mental health being connected over many studies. This is also supported by

The American Sleep Association and their claim that those who got insufficient rest were

more likely to lack concentration, have problems in relationships, and were more likely to be

depressed and suicidal. Their point shows the relationship between lack of sleep and lacking

concentration. It is also observable that lack of concentration can affect learning and

performance in school.
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The connection between poor mental health and sleep may are connected to poor

learning and poor educational performance as well. Symptoms of depression according to the

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) include feelings of hopelessness and decreased

energy and concentration. In a school setting these symptoms effect work ethic. Students

feeling hopeless and lacking concentration will struggle to complete course work, especially

when they have no energy to start their work. General Anxiety symptoms from the NIMH

include being easily fatigued, difficulty concentrating, and muscle tension. These symptoms

would also easily interfere with educational performance as struggle to focus and fatigue

would keep students from retaining information. Muscle tension can often also cause bodily

fatigue. Sleep being connected to poor mental health is then not only affecting educational

performance directly through poor judgement, but indirectly by mental health. Sleep and

mental health are tied together as both cause and result of one another according to the sleep

foundation. This means poor mental health can cause poor sleep health while poor sleep

health can worsen mental health. This is further confirmed by doctor Pichard in ‘An Unsung

Key to College Success: Sleep’ confirming that symptoms of depression, A.D.H.D. and

anxiety display in students lacking sleep, this shows improving sleep duration and quality will

improve symptoms that interfere with education. In another study by Jinwen Zhang et. al the

association between later bedtime with Chinese adolescents and poor mental health was affirmed

as well, suggesting that location also plays little role. Sleep is shown to be important to mental

health and is likely not limited by geographical or cultural factors.

Lack of sleep also affects health of the body along with mental health. As listed

previously other health problems tied to lack of sleep include cardiovascular disease, obesity,

and diabetes. This is confirmed by Shankar et. al, and their study confirming that in a
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representative adult sample in the United States, less sleep was positively correlated to

diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and obesity separately. Their results were

independent of factors such as gender, lack of exercise, smoking, drinking, and race. This

result helps to clear doubt about other factors such as those listed, despite the wide sample

range, poor sleep still remained a common thread. Sleep affects these as sleep regulates

different hormones that control things such as blood sugar and ghrelin and leptin which

control hunger and fullness. Physical health is strongly affected by lack of sleep and alongside

the previously mentioned health problems associated with lack of rest, immune system health

and growth and development. The immune system protects from illness and as lack of sleep

interferes the risk of getting sick increases. In growth and development sleep allows repair of

cells and tissues, hormone release, and muscle mass increase (Sleep Foundation). Lack of

sleep affecting physical health is going to harm a student’s general wellbeing. Students should

not be sacrificing physical health in their long-term future for a short-term grade. Health

problems can also deter people from pursuing further education even when they would like to

as they may not be able to perform at the level expected of them, or they may miss

coursework due to appointments.

Lack of sleep can also increase stress. In a study performed by Morales et al it was

found that medical residents that worked on call for 24 hours without sleep experienced

significantly more stress than those that worked shorter shifts with sleep. No significant

differences were revealed by gender. This result aligns with a similar result by You-Wei et al

in their study on stress in academic fields and sleep deprivation. Their work found that sleep

deprivation and academic stress are associated negatively meaning less sleep quality resulted

in higher stress. Both of these problems are also tied to academic burn-out. Students burning
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out discourages them from education as they feel no motivation and lose hope for their grades

to improve. Further schooling like college can already be difficult but the stress inflicted can

be increased due to lack of sleep. This can create a cycle in which students receive stressful

assignments, stay up late to complete them, then the lack of sleep inflicts stress and so when

they receive more stressful work the cycle repeats. This cycle will continue to create stress

and possibly burnout unless intervened with. High stress deters students from further

education and can make students feel as though they are behind. High stress can also cause

health problems and cause difficulty sleeping.

Another aspect of sleep deprivation would be memory. Sleep is absolutely necessary in

memory formation, especially in the long term. This is especially important in young children

building up their knowledge, including outside of an academic setting. This is confirmed by

Potkin and William, in which sleep is shown to improve memory in multiple ways,

declarative memory and procedural memory in all ages (Potkin and Bunney). The science

behind sleep and memory can be explained this way, the brain uses the third stage in the sleep

cycle to organize and build memories and the following stage solidifies them meaning not

only is sleep duration a factor, but so is sleep quality and depth (Sleep Foundation). The

importance of memory in an academic setting is vital. Memory is necessary to learn and retain

new information especially when it will likely need to be applied later. Sleep also prepares the

brain for learning and lack of sleep can drop the ability to retain new information by 40%

(“Sleep On It”). Memory is a vital part of learning in all senses. It is especially important in

learning the base information children learn that they build on in high school and into college.

This means that lack of sleep during these times can affect the memory needed for future

academic success.
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While lack of sleep can cause a myriad of health problems physically and mentally in

the long term, some could argue that sometimes staying up late or all night can be necessary.

This suggestion makes sense and is a respectable argument. Some assignments can be more

important but often times staying up all night can and should be avoided. This is not to say it

is a first choice, often times students prefer not to preform ‘all-nighters’. While they may not

be preferred, they may not be actively avoided. While some reasons are avoidable some

majors require significantly more classes, an unavoidable struggle, along with personal

struggle students may be handling outside of the educational setting. Life problems can be

unavoidable and hard to handle, but regularly staying up all night will end up doing more

harm than good. While staying up all night to complete course work may occur every so

often, incorporating it as a regular part of a schedule will negatively affect more than just the

next morning’s learning ability. Despite this mental and physical health are both important

and despite the importance of school, should not be sacrificed for short term success that will

sabotage students in the future both inside and outside of the classroom.

In all, poor sleep health is related to many physical and mental health problems and

negatively effects students of all ages and genders. Long deep sleep is more important than is

widely accepted and overall students should be taught from a young age the importance of a

healthy sleep schedule in their lives. I personally have had to stay up all night for course work

repeatedly in my academic career and I have felt some of these long-term results of poor sleep

habits. Rather than allowing this cycle to continue of students undervaluing their own sleep as

a luxury, it should be urged as a healthy part of student life especially in students in high

stress fields. Lack of sleep is tied to not only poor health, but poor educational performance as

displayed previously. Students struggling in school can get caught in the same stress loop as
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mentioned previously if they don’t try to rest to prepare their brains. In order to improve

grades in the future students should likely start by getting enough deep rest each night.
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Citations

Brody, Jane E. "An Unsung Key to College Success: Sleep." New York Times, 14 Aug. 2018, p.

D5(L). Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A550131789/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=fbc97da9. Accessed 28 Nov. 2020.

B., Jerico. Bamboo Telegraph, 2019, bambootelegraph.com/2019/03/07/should-you-pull-an-all-

nighter/.

Colten, Harvey R., and Bruce M. Altevogt. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: an Unmet

Public Health Problem. Institute of Medicine, 2006.

American Sleep Association. American Sleep Association, 2002. 2020,

www.sleepassociation.org/. Accessed 28 Nov. 2020

Morales, Jose, et al. "Stress and autonomic response to sleep deprivation in medical residents: A

comparative cross-sectional study." PLoS ONE, vol. 14, no. 4, 2019, p. e0214858. Gale

In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,  http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214858.

Accessed 28 Nov. 2020.

“NIMH " Home.” National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, 2020, www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml.

Potkin, Katya Trudeau, and William E. Bunney. "Sleep Improves Memory: The Effect of Sleep

on Long Term Memory in Early Adolescence." PLoS ONE, vol. 7, no. 8, 2012, p. e42191.
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Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0042191.

Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Shankar, Anoop, et al. "Insufficient Rest or Sleep and Its Relation to Cardiovascular Disease,

Diabetes and Obesity in a National, Multiethnic Sample." PLoS ONE, vol. 5, no. 11,

2010, p. e14189. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

http://dx.doi.org.sinclair.ohionet.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0014189. Accessed 28 Nov.

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“Sleep On It.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 13

July 2017, newsinhealth.nih.gov/2013/04/sleep-it.

Sleep Foundation, OneCare Media, 2019, www.sleepfoundation.org/. Accessed 9 Dec. 2020.

Ward, Mary. "Lack of sleep raises risk of anxiety." Sydney Morning Herald [Sydney, Australia],

11 Mar. 2020, p. 11. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A616906417/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=32e739a4. Accessed 28 Nov. 2020.

Yan, You-Wei, et al. "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ADOLESCENT ACADEMIC

STRESS AND SLEEP QUALITY: A MULTIPLE MEDIATION MODEL." Social

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Context: Opposing Viewpoints, http://dx.doi.org/10.2224/sbp.6530. Accessed 28 Nov.

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Zhang, Jinwen, et al. “Sleep Habits, Sleep Problems, Sleep Hygiene, and Their Associations with

Mental Health Problems among Adolescents.” Journal of the American Psychiatric

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Nurses Association, vol. 24, no. 3, May 2018, pp. 223–234. EBSCOhost,

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