Study finds link between sleep quality and schoolchildren’s grades in math and language
Getting children to bed at a consistent hour is one of the more persistent challenges for many families. New research from McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute in Montreal shows that prioritizing healthy sleep patterns can pay real academic dividends: children who sleep more efficiently tend to earn higher grades in math and language classes, two subjects that strongly influence later learning and overall school success.
Published in the journal Sleep Medicine, the study highlights sleep efficiency — a measure of sleep quality defined as the percentage of time in bed that a child is actually asleep — as a key predictor of better performance in math and language subjects. Unlike total sleep duration, sleep efficiency captures how well sleep time is used, reflecting how often a child wakes during the night or takes a long time to fall asleep.
While earlier studies have connected poor sleep to lower overall academic achievement, the Montreal team went further by examining report-card grades in specific subjects. Their findings show that higher sleep efficiency is associated with improved grades in math and languages, whereas grades in science and art did not show the same relationship. This suggests that sleep quality may affect some types of learning more than others.
“We believe that executive functions — the mental skills involved in planning, focusing attention, and managing multiple tasks — underlie the impact of sleep on academic performance, and these skills are more critical in math and language learning,” explains Reut Gruber, the clinical child psychologist who led the research.
Low academic performance among schoolchildren is a widespread concern, affecting an estimated 10–20% of students. “Short or poor sleep is a significant risk factor for poor academic performance that is frequently ignored,” says Gruber, who is a researcher at the Douglas Institute and a professor in McGill’s Department of Psychiatry. The study underlines that sleep quality, not just time in bed, deserves attention when assessing factors that influence learning.
Gruber’s team worked with the Riverside School Board in Saint-Hubert, Quebec, to study a group of 75 healthy children between the ages of 7 and 11. The researchers measured the children’s night-time sleep over several nights using actigraphy, a non-invasive method that uses a wristwatch-like device to track movement and infer sleep and wake patterns. By averaging data across five nights, they established each child’s typical sleep pattern and then compared those measures with the children’s report-card grades.
Practical advice for parents and educators
The study offers clear takeaways for parents, teachers and pediatricians: pay attention to sleep quality. That doesn’t mean every child needs a sleep clinic evaluation, but routine screening for sleep problems during pediatric visits could help identify children whose learning may be affected by poor sleep. Gruber stresses the value of asking simple questions about bedtime routines, night wakings and daytime sleepiness as part of standard checkups.
“I think many kids might have some sleep issues that nobody is aware of,” Gruber says. “If the pediatrician doesn’t ask about it, we don’t know that it’s there. Regular screening for possible sleep issues is particularly important for students who show difficulties in math, language or reading.” Early identification of sleep problems can lead to straightforward interventions — consistent bedtimes, improving sleep environment and addressing medical or behavioral causes — that may support better attention, memory and school performance.
The research received support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The study titled “Sleep efficiency (but not sleep duration) of healthy school-age children is associated with grades in math and languages” was authored by Reut Gruber, Gail Somerville, Paul Enros, Soukaina Paquin, Myra Kestler, and Elizabeth Gillies-Poitras and published in Sleep Medicine. Published online December 2014, doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2014.08.009
Contact: Florence Meney – Douglas Mental Health University Institute
Source: Douglas Mental Health University Institute press release
Image Source: Image credited to Flickr user chicks57, used for illustrative purposes. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic credit noted by the study’s materials.
Original Research: Full open-access research in Sleep Medicine by Reut Gruber and colleagues (see citation above).