Insufficient Sleep and the Socioeconomic Status Achievement Gap

Research with adults and children has shown that sleep plays a vital and complex role in multiple physiological systems that maintain health and promote optimal functioning across many domains. For children, school is an important domain of functioning, and emerging research links sleep to academic achievement. Many children from lower socioeconomic status (SES) families sleep poorly, and when their sleep is compromised, the effects on cognitive functioning and academic achievement may be greater than for less disadvantaged children. Understanding how sleep affects performance may enrich theory relating to the achievement gap between groups of children differing in SES, and constitutes a new focus for prevention and intervention. KEYWORDS—sleep; socioeconomic status; race; achievement gap; academic achievement; school behavior Social class disparities in health and education and attempts to reduce those disparities have been the subject of intense and broad interest in the United States. Children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families are at greater risk for problems in school, including underachievement, behavioral maladjustment, and early dropout. Scholars and policy makers have devoted much attention to possible causes and recommended intervenThanks are due to my colleagues Mona El-Sheikh and Stephen Erath, who read early drafts and offered helpful suggestions. This work was supported by National Science Foundation Grants 0339115 and 0623936. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joseph A. Buckhalt, Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, Counseling ⁄ School Psychology, College of Education, Haley Center 2084, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849; e-mail: buckhja @auburn.edu. a 2011 The Author Child Development Perspectives a 2011 The Society for Research in Child Development Volume 5, Number tions for narrowing or closing what has come to be called the achievement gap. This article makes a case for a connection between sleep and school performance by children from low-SES families that may enrich theory and guide prevention and interventions for better health and academic achievement. Although the importance of sleep for maintaining health in children is part of common cultural wisdom, scientific understanding of how sleep benefits child health, development, and education is still emerging. It is becoming clear that sleep plays a vital and complex role in multiple physiological systems that maintain health and promote optimal functioning across many domains over the course of child development. SCHOOL PERFORMANCE AND SES Low SES is related to significant limitations in families’ quality of life. The problems manifest in multiple areas, including nutrition, health, education, employment, and attainment of material resources. Children from low-SES families often have low academic achievement in the form of lower classroom grades, lower standardized test scores, and lower level of grade completion. They also frequently manifest problem behaviors that are not congruent with expectations and rules of the teachers and the school environment. The behavior problems interfere directly with learning and often lead to disciplinary actions, including suspensions, which in turn can hinder achievement. Every year brings new studies, continued analysis and interpretation, and renewed commitment to initiatives to narrow or close the achievement gap (U.S. Department of Education, 2008), but it remains wide and persistent (Educational Testing Service, 2009). Opinions about what should be done are ample in both public media and academic journals (e.g., Fiscella & Kitzman, 2009; Schemo, 2006). For more than four decades, there has been no consensus about either the cause for the gap or the solution, and scholars today remain deeply divided in positions that often comingle sociopolitical values and scientific views (see, e.g., Murray, 2008; Nisbett, 2009). Although rhetoric