Early morning uni lectures linked to poor sleep, attendance and grades

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-02-21 03:00

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If you dreaded those early morning lectures at uni, it turns out you were completely justified, and not just completely lazy! Singaporean scientists say scheduling uni lectures early in the morning may be leading to poor attendance, less sleep, and worse academic performance. They looked at WiFi login data for 23,391 students to gauge attendance and found early morning lectures at 08:00 were attended by 10% fewer students compared with later start times. In terms of sleep, students slept for an hour less if they had an 08:00 lecture compared with later start times, Looking at students' grades, they found a link between the number of days of early starts and lower grade point averages - the more early starts students had, the worse their grades were. The researchers say the link between early lectures and poorer outcomes is "concerning".