Relations Among Sleep, Internalizing Symptoms, and Academic Performance in College Students

Abstract

Objectives: To examine correlations among sleep, internalizing symptoms, and academic performance among undergraduate students. Methods: A sample of undergraduate students (N = 255) at a comprehensive public university in the U.S. wore a Fitbit activity band for three weeks to track their sleep via actigraphy. Average total sleep time, circadian midpoint, and sleep efficiency metrics, as well as intraindividual variability in those metrics, were used. Participants also completed a subjective sleep quality questionnaire and self-assessments of depression and anxiety symptoms. Academic performance (i.e., GPA) was gathered from the university registrar’s office. Results: There were mostly near-zero relations among actigraphy sleep metrics, academic performance, and internalizing symptoms in the sample. However, there were significant correlations among subjective sleep quality and internalizing symptoms. Conclusion: Contrary to our hypotheses, students who slept little, poorly, or with night-to-night variability, as measured by wearable actigraphy, did not have elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression, nor poorer academic performance.