Prospective association between evening circadian preference and academic functioning in adolescents: the role of daytime sleepiness - PubMed
Source : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35953260/
doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13683. Online ahead of print. 1 Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA. 2 Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA. 3 Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.13683. Online ahead of print.
Conclusion: Findings underscore daytime sleepiness as a possible intervening mechanism linking evening preference to poor academic functioning across adolescence. Intervention studies are needed to evaluate whether targeting circadian preference and sleepiness improves academic functioning in adolescents.
• Source: The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
• Conclusions: “Findings underscore daytime sleepiness as a possible intervening mechanism linking evening preference to poor academic functioning across adolescence. Intervention studies are needed to evaluate whether targeting circadian preference and sleepiness improves academic functioning in adolescents.”
• Researchers used a multi-informant design to examine the correlation between evening circadian preference, daytime sleepiness, and academic functioning during a period of 2 years in 306 adolescents.
• These are the first research findings to identify daytime sleepiness as a factor tying evening circadian preference and academic outcomes during a 2-year study period.
• “Specifically, self-reported evening circadian preference was associated with increased parent ratings of academic impairment through self- and parent-reported daytime sleepiness, whereas parent ratings of daytime sleepiness explained the link between evening preference and increased teacher-reported impairment and lower GPA, in addition to lower grades in english/language arts and history subjects specifically,” the authors write.
• Limitations of the current study include no evidence of causality due to study design and issues with using circadian preference as a proxy measure for circadian function.