al.’ s study? I’ ve tried something similar in courses, and you do get a reaction of,“ Whoa!” from them. But will that actually change their sleep behavior? Are grades a powerful enough motivator to change how much or how well they are sleeping? And are students willing or even able to change their sleep choices in the first place?
“ While sleep quality is a factor which is not fully under control of students, their average sleep duration is to a large extend a choice. In this respect we follow Mindell et al.( 2011) that‘ sleep should be a standard component of school curriculums, with an emphasis on the importance of the need for sleep, the impact of sleep loss, awareness of sleep problems, and the basics of sleep and sleep architecture.’ In addition, higher education providers might be incentivized to invest part of their resources for social facilities in professional support for students with health- including sleep- problems”( Baert, et al., 2015, p. 97).
So Baert and his team( along with Mindell, et al. quoted within) are arguing here that students are in some control of their sleep – maybe not the actual quality but at least the length( more about how universities can help later). So if it’ s possible for them to control how long they sleep, then it must be possible for instructors to influence that behavior as well. But again, is talking about how grades and sleep are related the best course? Perhaps it depends on the type of student. Among the sleepy student archetypes I discussed earlier, perhaps the people you could reach with this approach are those overstretched but well-intentioned ones who have just bitten off more than they can chew with their schedules. Knowing that burning the candle at both ends is making the quality of what they are trying to accomplish suffer, and will end up causing a drop in their grades, is probably something that can make this type of student pause and reevaluate priorities. For the other type of student who sleeps poorly because of bad time management skills or just a lack of motivation, their grades have probably been taking a hit for some time, and the idea of poor grades on the horizon if sleep doesn’ t improve might not be the jolt they need. So, what else can we do?
First, we need to incorporate sleep science into our lessons and into the course activities and projects our students do. Especially when done as a research project or a presentation, students may internalize the available information about how sleep affects their school lives and health, and then reinforce those ideas when presenting their findings to their classmates. This might be enough to reach those students willing to accept it and lead to actual changes in behavior. But as Baert, et al.( 2015) suggest, this also needs to be tackled at the institutional level as well. Sleep science needs to be factored in to more than just language courses. And even more importantly, incoming freshman need to be taught time management skills as they enter university. This is when they’ re most able to adjust their schedules and make decisions about how they allocate their time. How much do they need to work at part-time jobs? Are circles and clubs worth the time spent? These questions, and knowing that sleep cannot be the thing always sacrificed to make room for everything else, is crucial for these new students to learn.
In the end, I have to say that the threat of poor grades alone is not enough to get students to sleep enough at night. It will take this multi-pronged approach from every level of their educational experience to influence this behavior. But as a start, tell them that sleeping well before that test could make the difference between passing and failing, and maybe that will make some difference.