title: Effects of Instant Messaging on School Performance in Adolescents.
abstract: Instant messaging may compromise sleep quality and school performance in adolescents. We aimed to determine associations between nighttime messaging and daytime sleepiness, self-reported sleep parameters, and/or school performance. Students from 3 high schools in New Jersey completed anonymous questionnaires assessing sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, messaging habits, and academic performance. Of the 2,352 students sampled, 1,537 responses were contrasted among grades, sexes, and messaging duration, both before and after lights out. Students who reported longer duration of messaging after lights out were more likely to report a shorter sleep duration, higher rate of daytime sleepiness, and poorer academic performance. Messaging before lights out was not associated with higher rates of daytime sleepiness or poorer academic performance. Females reported more messaging, more daytime sleepiness, and better academic performance than males. There may be an association between text messaging and school performance in this cohort of students.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Karan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Grover
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pecor
authors.affiliation: Union City High School, Union City, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Malkowski
authors.affiliation: Communications High School, Wall Township, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Lilia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.affiliation: Emerson Jr./Sr. High School, Emerson, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Sasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.affiliation: Montgomery High School, Skillman, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Roshni
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lulla
authors.affiliation: Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Heisey
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, NJ, USA Sleep Medicine Division, New Jersey Neuroscience Institute, JFK Medical Center, Seton Hall University, Edison, NJ, USA mingxu@rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Xue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ming
mesh_terms: D000073978:Academic Performance; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000367:Age Factors; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009515:New Jersey; D017440:Photoperiod; D012574:Schools; D012737:Sex Factors; D012890:Sleep; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D060145:Text Messaging; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: daytime sleepiness; school performance; screen time; sleep; text messaging