The Impact of Sleep on Academic Performance

We all know we need a good night’s sleep but sleep researcher, David Creswell PhD has studied how our performance is actually affected by sleep. He has even found a predictive correlation between student’s college GPA scores and their sleep duration. 

David Creswell is a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and has published numerous studies on mindfulness-based interventions and their impact on well-being. He is a prominent researcher specializing in health psychology, mindfulness meditation, and stress management. 

Earlier this year David co-authored a paper in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences called, “Nightly sleep duration predicts grade point average in the first year of college” which caught our attention. The research measures performance metrics among students who wore Fitbits while sleeping. The findings suggest getting less than 6 hours of sleep may be a threshold where sleep shifts from helpful to harmful. 

To wrap up the conversation, hosts Kurt and Tim discuss the topic of sleep in their Grooving Session. They discuss their very different sleep patterns and what Kurt has done to help improve his insomnia.

© 2023 Behavioral Grooves

(4:22) Welcome and speed round questions.

(5:50) David’s research on sleep.

(12:14) What about daytime napping?

(15:42) The difference between sleeping more or less than 6 hours per night.

(17:16) Sleep duration and academic success in college students.

(22:16) How to avoid false positives in research.

(30:09) Does David listen to music while he sleeps?

(33:34) Grooving Session with Kurt and Tim on sleep.

© 2023 Behavioral Grooves

Dr David Creswell PhD: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/psychology/directory/core-training-faculty/creswell-david.html 

The Health and Human Performance Lab: https://www.healthandhumanperformancelab.com/ 

Equa App: https://equahealth.io/about-us/ 

Creswell, et. al. (Jan 2023), “Nightly sleep duration predicts grade point average in the first year of college” Psychological and Cognitive Sciences: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2209123120 

Ruchir Sera - Episode 26, Resonea app and the Behavioral Effects of Sleep: https://behavioralgrooves.com/episode/ruchir-sehra-on-the-behavioral-effects-of-sleep/

American Academy of Sleep Medicine: https://aasm.org/ 

Taylor Swift “Anti-Hero”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1kbLwvqugk 

Don Ho “Tiny Bubbles”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muEFD_odvUg 

The Beatles “Yer Blues” from The White Album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeFwaWFTGYU