Sleep, Well-Being and Academic Performance: A Study in a Singapore Residential College

Abstract

We examined the relationship between sleep and the affective components of subjective well-being as well as psychological well-being, and between sleep and academic performance, of full-time undergraduate students in a residential college at the National University of Singapore. The aspects of sleep considered were self-reported sleep duration, sleep efficiency, frequency of sleep disturbances, daytime dysfunction, sleep latency and overall sleep quality, as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Academic performance was measured using self-reported cumulative average point scores, typically known as grade point average in other institutions. Psychological well-being and the affective components of subjective well-being were assessed using the Flourishing Scale and the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience, respectively. With the exception of sleep latency, our univariate analysis revealed significant associations between the abovementioned facets of sleep, and the affective components of subjective well-being. The analysis also revealed significant associations between the above sleep variables and psychological well-being, except sleep latency and frequency of sleep disturbances. Only daytime dysfunction was found to be significantly correlated with academic performance in our univariate analysis. In addition, our multivariate analysis shows that psychological well-being, affect balance and academic performance each has a direct effect on overall sleep quality. The relationship between overall sleep quality and psychological well-being is U-shaped, while that between overall sleep quality and affect balance is linear and moderated by psychological well-being. The relationship between overall sleep quality and academic performance is either U-shaped or an inverted-U, depending on the level of psychological well-being, which moderates the relationship. These nonlinear relationships indicate that individuals with the highest levels of psychological well-being are not the best sleepers (in terms of overall sleep quality), neither are the highest academic achievers necessarily the best sleepers.

Wake-up time and academic performance of university students in Indonesia: A cross-sectional study

“…The inconsistencies in the literature regarding the association between sleep and school performance could be mediated by the effect of psychological wellbeing, which was not controlled in either our study or previous studies (Eliasson et al, 2010;Valic et al, 2014;Raley et al, 2016;King and Scullin, 2019;Okano et al, 2019;Armand et al, 2021). The relationship between quantity and quality of sleep with academic performance was moderated by the psychological wellbeing formed both U-shaped and inverted U-shaped (Armand et al, 2021).…”

“…The relationship between quantity and quality of sleep with academic performance was moderated by the psychological wellbeing formed both U-shaped and inverted U-shaped (Armand et al, 2021). These two relationship patterns showed that poor and good sleepers could get good or bad academic grades depending on their psychological wellbeing (Armand et al, 2021). Therefore, it could be suggested…”

COVID-19 Pandemic-Related Sleep and Mental Health Disparities among Students at a Hispanic and Minority-Serving Institution

“…On the other hand, having stopped breathing during sleep is a severe symptom of obstructive sleep apnea [ 26 ] and thus, as a rare case in our population, is less likely to yield statistical significance. In a study among Singapore college students, Armand et al [ 27 ] also found a non-linear relation between mental health, academic performance, and overall sleep quality, further showing the need for more long-term assessment. Nevertheless, future case-control retrospective studies, which are appropriate for rare cases, may be of value to assess the relationship between such severe obstructive sleep apnea symptoms and markers for physical well-being.…”

The Impact of Sleep and Mental Health on Working Memory and Academic Performance: A Longitudinal Study

“…A similar association between poor sleep and better academic performance was also documented among medical students in Saudi Arabia [ 24 ]. Furthermore, increasing evidence from the recent literature has suggested that good sleep and better academic performance do not always follow a linear pattern [ 44 , 45 ], although methodological differences in data collection and analysis may explain the discrepancy between conflicting results. It may be necessary to expand the simple model of a direct relationship between sleep quality and academic performance and explore other factors that potentially shape this relationship [ 26 ].…”