Actigraphic sleep dimensions and associations with academic functioning among adolescents

Gina Marie Mathew; David A Reichenberger; Lindsay Master; Orfeu M Buxton; Anne-Marie Chang; Lauren Hale

doi:10.1093/sleep/zsae062

Actigraphic sleep dimensions and associations with academic functioning among adolescents

Sleep. 2024 Mar 5:zsae062. doi: 10.1093/sleep/zsae062. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Gina Marie Mathew¹, David A Reichenberger², Lindsay Master², Orfeu M Buxton², Anne-Marie Chang², Lauren Hale¹

Affiliations

¹ Program in Public Health, Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine, Renaissance School of Medicine, Stony Brook University, 101 Nicolls Road, Health Sciences Center, Level 3, Room 071, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8338, USA.
² Department of Biobehavioral Health, College of Health and Human Development, Pennsylvania State University, 219 Biobehavioral Health Building, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

PMID: 38442263
DOI: 10.1093/sleep/zsae062

Abstract

Study objectives: There is mixed evidence regarding associations of sleep duration with academic functioning in adolescents and a lack of research on other sleep dimensions, particularly using objective sleep measures. We examined associations of multiple actigraphic sleep dimensions with academic functioning among adolescents.

Methods: Data were from the sleep sub-study of the age 15 wave of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n=774-782), a national, diverse sample of teens. Adolescents wore wrist-actigraphs for ~1 week and completed a survey reporting grades and school-related problems. Regression models assessed whether average sleep duration, timing, maintenance efficiency, and SD-variability were associated with self-reported academic functioning in cross-sectional analyses adjusted for demographic characteristics, depressive symptoms, and anxious symptoms.

Results: Later sleep timing (hrs) and greater sleep variability (SD-hrs) were associated with poorer academic outcomes, including sleep onset variability with higher odds of receiving a D or lower (OR=1.29), sleep onset (β=-.07), sleep offset (β=-.08), and sleep duration variability (β=-.08) with fewer A grades, sleep offset with lower GPA (β=-.07), sleep offset (OR=1.11), sleep duration variability (OR=1.31), and sleep onset variability (OR=1.42) with higher odds of being suspended or expelled in the past two years, and sleep duration variability with greater trouble at school (β=.13). Sleep duration, sleep maintenance efficiency, and sleep regularity index were not associated with academic functioning.

Conclusion: Later sleep timing and greater sleep variability are risk factors for certain academic problems among adolescents. Promoting sufficient, regular sleep timing across the week may improve adolescent academic functioning.

Keywords: academic functioning; actigraphy; adolescence; sleep duration; sleep maintenance efficiency; sleep regularity index; sleep timing; sleep variability.