Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141588 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9829
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Policymakers advocating for later school starting times argue that increased sleep duration may generate important schooling benefits. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examines the relationship between sleep duration and academic performance, while carefully controlling for difficult-to-measure characteristics at the family- and individual-levels. We find that increased sleep time is associated with improvements in classroom concentration as well as increased educational attainment. However, we also find evidence of diminishing returns to increased sleep. We estimate an "academic optimum" number of sleep hours of, on average, 8.5 hours per night. Turning to sleep quality, we find that the onset of insomnia-like symptoms is associated with diminished contemporaneous academic concentration, but little change in longer-run educational attainment.
Subjects: 
human capital
schooling
insomnia
sleep
JEL: 
I12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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