Increased recreational screen time and time to fall asleep are associated with worse academic performance in Canadian undergraduates

ABSTRACT

Academic success is a primary goal for students and academic institutions. Previous studies have investigated the impacts of physical activity, screen time, and sleep but not sedentary time on academic performance. It is unclear which lifestyle behaviours are most influential on academic performance. The study purposes were to 1) determine how achieving each component of the 24-hr movement guidelines independently impacted the academic performance of Canadian undergraduates, and 2) explore which lifestyle behaviours were most influential to academic performance. A cross-sectional quantitative survey was open to any undergraduate student in Canada. Respondents (n = 411, 335 females, mean±standard deviation: 22.08 ± 3.66 years) completed a survey about their lifestyle behaviours. Sedentary time (Pearson’s correlation: R = 0.13), recreational screen time (R=-0.14), and time-to-sleep (R=-0.18) were correlated (all p < 0.01) to academic performance. Sex (F = 4.62), age (R=-0.16), and BMI (R=-0.17) were included as covariates (all p < 0.03). Regression analysis identified several lifestyle behaviours were associated with academic performance (model: R² = 0.13; P < 0.001), including sedentary time (β = 0.38; 16.80% weight), leisure screen time (β=-0.41; 16.90% weight), and time-to-sleep (β=-0.05; 19.00% weight; all, p < 0.007) when controlling for sex (β=-2.86; 19.10% weight), age (β=-1.68; 11.80% weight), and BMI (β=-2.54: 16.40% weight) as covariates. Students who are more sedentary performed well academically because academic obligations (e.g., studying) are commonly conducted in sedentary postures. Reducing recreational screen time, particularly before bedtime, may be an effective strategy for increasing academic performance. Encouraging students to engage in less leisure sedentary time on screen could be effective for improving academic performance.

KEYWORDS:

• 24-hr movement guidelines
• sedentary time
• physical activity
• university students
• academic grades

Disclosure statement

JRF and TSN were/are the National Chair of Exercise is Medicine Canada. JRF was the scientific lead for the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology Physical Activity Training for Health Manual for which the Physical Activity Sedentary Behaviour Questionnaire as developed. All other authors report no other conflicts of interest..

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14635240.2023.2248091