Remote Learning Doesn’t Improve Students’ Sleep Schedule

A recent study on student sleep patterns found that online learning hasn’t done anything to improve students’ sleep patterns whatsoever. Namely, due to the global pandemic, online learning has been the general modus operandi for students across the globe — hence why a study was conducted by Simon Frazer University to determine just how well students were sleeping with this new way of learning. 

In short, online learning entails less commuting, which means students have more free time during the day. In addition, the social activities that go with the usual class schedules during in-person learning are no longer a thing. Thus, this would imply that students have more time to rest. However, the study found that this was not the case. 

To be more specific, the study focused on the sleep patterns of 80 students during the COVID-19 pandemic and compared it to that of 450 students who were enrolled at the university prior to the pandemic. It found that students were going to bed later at night, despite having more free time. 

The study also found that students were going to bed later because they no longer had to prepare themselves for early classes. However, it’s important to note that the students weren’t sleeping any longer. Instead, they were, in fact, losing sleep in addition to experiencing fewer daylight hours. 

And according to the data collected by Fitbits and questionnaires, the sleep that the students were getting was also shown to be disruptive. However, the findings of the study didn’t include whether students were using natural sleep aids to lull them to sleep or not.