Sleeping Duration, Bedtime and BMI and Their Rapport on Academic Performance among Adolescents

Background: Proper development of cognitive skills during childhood is substantially connected with adequate sleeping. Sleeping is drastically undergoing pattern changes during the shifting from childhood to adolescence. The academic acquisition is a multifactorial process with devastating inputs. Academic achievement directly correlates with the behavioral attitudes of students. Shorter sleeping duration erodes the volume of brain gray matter in frontal and precuneus cortex regions. Moreover, the concomitant depletion of neurotransmitters is proportionally connected with inadequate sleeping.

Aims: To evaluate the associations between bedtime initiations, sleeping sufficiency and objective academic performance in a large sample of second secondary students.

Methods: The study sample consisted of 900 adolescents; 450boysand 450 girls in the second secondary class at Hail city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Participants filled a questioner about their socioeconomic factors as bedtime, sleeping duration, mental games practicing, and physical activity. Weight and height were measured to assess body mass index (kg/m2). Data extracted from the questioner used to study the contribution of the concomitant factors on academic achievement.

Results: The mean weight was 73.57±8.34 kg IQR (44-126) while the mean height was (170.38±6.45) cm IQR (141-192). The mean BMI was 33.57±14.79(IQR 21.0–38.8). The overall prevalence of childhood obesity was 460 (49.6%; 95% CI: 55.3–66.8%) while the prevalence of overweight was 85 (9.04%; 95% CI: 7.3 –11.4%). The mean ministry academic score for the second secondary class was 70±9.99 IQR (44- 99) while the school academic score was 88.07±7.44 IQR (60-99). 51.6% of the students went to bed between 10-12 pm and only 17.6% slept between 8 and 10 hours.

Conclusion: We can summarize, the independent variables as bedtime, sleeping duration, and obesity ameliorate academic achievement in a counteractive way; high BMI above 35 and prolonged sleeping duration more than 10 hours significantly curb the total academic score, whereas, healthy bedtime of 8-10 pm concomitantly augment the academic achievement.