Intraindividual variability in sleep duration and college degree attainment

ABSTRACT

The objective of the current study was to examine the relationship between sleep characteristics and college degree attainment. Participants were 968 college students (72% female; mean age 19.7 [1.7]). Participants completed a psychosocial and sleep questionnaire battery followed by one week of daily sleep diaries. Academic degree completion data was obtained from the university registrar 10 years later. Logistic regression examined whether mean and variability in sleep duration and sleep efficiency and insomnia symptoms predicted degree attainment, adjusting for age, gender, semester, grade point average (GPA), and perceived stress. The strongest predictors of degree attainment were female gender (OR = 0.67), greater age (OR = 1.32), GPA (OR = 1.97), and lower intraindividual variability in sleep duration (OR = 0.99). Results highlight the importance of examining variability in sleep duration in addition to mean sleep duration in predicting college retention. Future research should use a combination of objective and subjective measures to explore the impact of sleep factors, including variability, on degree completion and other academic metrics.

KEYWORDS:

• Sleep
• degree attainment
• insomnia
• intraindividual variability
• college students
• mental health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2023.2256845.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of North Texas under Grant G69250. Dr. Dietch’s work on this project was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute under Grant [HL157698].