Sleep is a fundamental aspect of human health that plays a crucial role in cognitive function, academic performance and social interactions. 

College students are vulnerable to insufficient or irregular sleep. However, changes in sleep patterns across the entire college career are not well understood and have historically relied on self-reported data. To examine longitudinal sleep patterns and their impact among college students, researchers analyzed daily sleep records from Fitbit devices worn by 76 undergraduates at the University of Notre Dame between 2015 and 2019.

The researchers found that average sleep duration increased by an average of eight minutes from freshman to senior year. Students with higher grade point averages slept longer on average than those with lower grades.