Sleep and academic performance in university students: a systematic review

INTRODUCTIONUniversity students tend to suffer from problems of sleep regularity, quantity and quality, which can affect their academic performance. These problems are related to changes typical of the phase of the life cycle in which they find themselves due to maturational, psychosocial development (associated with the processes of individuation and socialisation) and academic factors. The study of the relationship between sleep and academic performance in university students is an area of research of growing interest, which has started to be studied over the last two decades. AIMTo conduct a systematic review of the existing literature on the relationship between sleep and academic performance in university students. SUBJECTS AND METHODSThe articles included in the PubMed database were selected, following the PRISMA guidelines. Studies evaluating samples of subjects with an average age between 18 and 26 years, published in English or Spanish during the period 2000-2019 were included. Subsequently, the quality of the selected articles was evaluated according to the STROBE standard. RESULTSThirty studies were identified, which were grouped according to different aspects of sleep: drowsiness, duration, experience of total sleep deprivation, sleep quality, chronotype, regularity and sleep disorders. CONCLUSIONThe results of these studies suggest that inadequate sleep has a negative effect on the academic performance of university students.