The Relationship Between Self-reported Hours of Sleep, Perceptions of Tiredness and Academic Performance in a Military Training Environment

Prior research has demonstrated a relationship between a student’s amount of nightly sleep and their grades. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between self-reported sleep on weekdays and weekends, subjective feelings of tiredness, and academic performance among Health Care Specialist students at Ft. Sam Houston, TX. A survey was administered during the first two weeks of training and final academic performance was recorded (pass/fail status and final course average) for 153 student volunteers. Spearman rho correlations and Chisquare analyses were conducted on the ordinal data. Results indicate a positive correlation between weekday hours-of-sleep and weekend hours-of-sleep (p < .05). However, only self-reported hours of sleep on weekends was significantly correlated with academic performance (p < .05). An interpretation of findings, implications for course design, and ideas for future research are discussed.