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Abstract Introduction Poor sleep is common amongst college students and is hypothesized to negatively impact academic performance. However, much of the work on this topic has been cross-sectional and not accounted for fluid intelligence or baseline mental health, thereby limiting understanding of causal direction. In the current work, we examined whether sleep duration, quality, and timing in the first year of college were predictive of end-of-year grade point average (GPA) when accounting for known predictors such as demographics, mental health, and fluid intelligence. Methods First year college students (N=491, Mage=18.3; 71.1% female; 54.5% non-white; mean ACT=29.6) were recruited to complete a baseline session that included measures of sleep quality (PSQI), social jetlag (difference in midpoint of sleep across weekdays and weekends), chronotype (morningness-eveningness questionnaire), daytime sleepiness (Epworth sleepiness scale), mental health (depression and anxiety inventories), and fluid intelligence (Raven’s progressive matrices). End-of-year cumulative GPA data were extracted from university records. Results Students averaged 6.78 hours of total sleep time, 88.3 minutes of social jet lag, and approached clinically poor levels of global sleep quality (M=5.77) and daytime sleepiness (M=9.05). After adjusting for depression symptoms, trait anxiety, fluid intelligence, age, race/ethnicity, and sex (R2=.09, F=6.79, p.001), the sleep measures explained significant unique variance in end-of-year GPA (delta R2=.05, p.001). The strongest individual predictors of lower GPAs were poorer global sleep quality (β=-.154, p=.02) and greater social jetlag (β=-.15, p=.002; sleepiness and chronotype were not significant predictors in adjusted models, ps.05). Sleep quality and social jetlag remained significant predictors of GPA when additionally controlling for standardized test scores (ACT; ps.05). Students who completed the year with a perfect GPA (4.0) showed 1.2 points better global sleep quality (p=.006) and 23 min lower social jetlag (p=.04) than the remaining students, after correcting for demographic, mental health, and intelligence factors. Conclusion Poor sleep quality and social jetlag early in college are independent risk factors for lower future academic success, even when accounting for mental health, fluid intelligence, and demographics. There is a need for individual and environmental interventions to improve sleep health in first year students. Support (if any) Support provided by the National Science Foundation (1920730).
Fitzsimmons et al. (Sat,) studied this question.