Students suffer ‘social jet lag’ from out of sync timetables

THE majority of students are out of sync with the traditional school day and it is affecting their exam results, a study into the problem has shown.

Researchers in the US say it is time to tailor timetables to natural biological rhythms, because some students are unfairly hampered by their body clocks.

The new study looked at the daily online activity of nearly 15,000 students as they logged into campus servers over two years when not at class.

After sorting them into night owls, daytime finches and morning larks, researchers cross-referenced categories with class schedules and test scores.

They found that 50per cent of the students were taking classes before they were fully alert, while a further 10per cent had already peaked by the time their classes had started.

The researchers said it showed that the majority of youngsters were suffering from social jet lag, a condition in which peak alertness does not coincide with work or school.

“We found that the majority of students were being jet-lagged by their class times, which correlated very strongly with decreased academic performance,” said Dr Benjamin Smarr, colead author of the study and an expert in circadian rhythm disruptions at the University of California Berkeley.

“Because owls are later and classes tend to be earlier, this mismatch hits owls the hardest, but we see larks and finches taking later classes and also suffering from the mismatch. Different people really do have biologically diverse timing, so there isn’t a one-time-fits-all solution for education.”

In addition to learning deficits, social jet lag has been linked to obesity and excessive alcohol and tobacco use.

Previous studies have found that older people tend to be active earlier while young adults shift to a later sleepwake cycle during puberty.

Overall, men stay up later than women, and circadian rhythms shift with the seasons based on natural light.

Dr Smarr concluded: “Rather than admonish late students to go to bed earlier, we should work to individualise education so that learning is structured to take advantage of what time a student will be most capable.”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.