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Report: Students With Long Hours Fall Short In Studies

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By MICHAEL VIRTANEN, The Associated Press

Published: December 15, 2007

ALBANY, N.Y. - Students who rely on all-nighters to bring up their grades might want to sleep on that strategy: A new survey says those who never study all night have slightly higher grade-point averages than those who do.

A survey of 120 students at St. Lawrence University, a small liberal arts college in northern New York, found that students who have never pulled an all-nighter have GPAs that average 3.1, compared with 2.9 for those who have. The study, by assistant professor of psychology Pamela Thacher, is to be included in January's issue of Behavioral Sleep Medicine.

"It's not a big difference, but it's pretty striking," Thacher said. "I am primarily a sleep researcher, and I know nobody thinks clearly at 4 in the morning. You think you do, but you can't."

A second study by Thacher, a clinical psychologist, had "extremely similar" results, showing lower grades among the sleep skippers.

Prav Chatani, a St. Lawrence sophomore who was not involved in either study, said the findings made sense. The neuroscience major has been pulling fewer all-nighters, but recently stayed up until about 4 or 5 a.m. to prepare for an organic chemistry test and a neuroscience presentation, he said.

He found himself unable to remember some of the things he had studied.

"A lot of students were under the impression all-nighters were a very useful tool for accomplishing work," said Chatani, who had a 3.4 grade-point average last semester.

Howard Weiss, a physician at St. Peter's Sleep Center in Albany, said the study results make sense.

"Certainly that data is out there showing that short sleep duration absolutely interferes with concentration, interferes with performance on objective testing," Weiss said.

Of course, some night owls do get good grades, he added.

Some people have different 24-hour body clocks than others and may do better, depending on class and testing times, Weiss said.

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