Back To School - Sleep and Success

Studies have shown that sleep habits can predict a student's grades and their chances of graduating.

As another school year begins, college-bound young adults and their parents are filled with both excitement and concern. Academics, athletics, activities, and friends… While students wonder how they’ll fit all the things they want to do into measly 24 hour days, parents worry that their children will lose the focus and balance required to succeed and earn a degree.

Recently, I ran across an interesting article in the New York Times addressing these very issues. Specifically, personal health columnist Jane Brody discusses the role sleep can play in promoting – and predicting – success at college. Brody cites a recent national study that suggests:

• Improved sleep increases the likelihood that a student will graduate.

• Increases in sleep disturbance are associated with lower GPAs.

• Feeling stressed is the main reason for poor student sleep.

Before launching my private psychotherapy practice, I spent more than a decade working with depressed and anxious young adults as a college and high school teacher and counselor, as well as on inpatient psychiatric units at McLean Hospital. I am all too familiar with the demands placed on students by both academic and extra-curricular pursuits. Too often, poor sleep contributed to crises that led to students’ hospitalizations and interfered with recovery after hospital discharge.

You can read Jane Brody’s piece on college and sleep here.

If you or a young adult you know is struggling with mental health, please reach out for help.