Students taking early morning classes are more likely to have higher grades, a study published Wednesday by St. Lawrence University psychology professors found. Although later classes allow students to get more sleep, the results suggested they were associated with greater alcohol consumption.
The study, completed by Serge Onyper and Pamela Thacher, was conducted via questionnaire filled out by students in psychology courses at St. Lawrence University, a private institution in New York. The 253 students ranged from college freshmen to college seniors and answered questions about their class schedules, sleeping habits and other activities. Researchers also looked at participating students' grade point averages.
"We weren't sure, actually, what the results would be," Thacher said. "In high-school literature, the earlier [students] start, the worse they do in terms of their mood and their performance in the classroom, and we were expecting all of those results."
Thacher and Onyper assumed the students would want to sleep and would prefer to have later classes. "The surprising thing was that students with later classes on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are going out drinking," Thacher said. "We weren't expecting alcohol to be the biggest predictor, especially in the middle of the week."
Thacher said these results cannot necessarily be applied to college students nationwide, especially those attending larger universities, however.
"You need to do these studies for a much broader population," she said. "When the student body gets a little more diverse, I don't know how [the study] would work for a large university." Factors such as the percentage of students living off-campus and the presence of older students continuing their education would impact the results, Thacher said.
University Psychology Prof. Daniel Willingham, who had not previously heard about the study, said he was aware of the University doing similar research. He added, however, alcohol may not be the only factor.
"There could be several other factors involved other than the fact that students who drink a lot get poorer grades," he said. "It could be that it's nothing to do with students taking later classes; they may know themselves and take later classes."
Fourth-year College student Anjali Nanda said she is "generally a morning person, but I don't think class time affects my grades. For me, taking math earlier in the morning has been much better and I'm more inclined to be lazy in class later in the day"
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