**5. Concluding remarks**

**3.3. Sleep habits and obesity**

224 Health and Academic Achievement

*3.3.1. Sleep breathing disorders*

instance [27].

One of the intriguing relationships of sleep habits and health is the research findings of sleep patterns and obesity. The scientific research has raised the importance of sedentary lifestyle in overweight and obesity. Insufficient sleep plays a critical role in children with overweight and predicts body mass index (BMI) when the students also do sedentary activities [92]. The mechanism associated to the lack of sleep is the level of hormones regulating the body appetite due to a decrease of leptin secretion and an increase of the ghrelin [92]. This mechanism creates an imbalance of both hormones increasing the feelings of hungry and the need to intake foods and then the incidence of overweight and obesity, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes or hypertension [73, 78, 92]. Additionally, this relationship appears to have another influence on obese/overweight student's physical growth, the reduction in height [73, 78, 92]. The main body of research of different countries [92] showed negative correlations between sleep deprivation and BMI and positive correlations with height [78, 92]. This result has a gender effect with female students having less sleep deprivation and environmental pressure than their male mates, reflecting a greater prevalence of obesity in male students with less sleep [92].

Some studies also related the students facing with sleep breathing disorders, such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) or insomnia, to poor academic performances [65, 68]. These disorders include difficulties to maintain sleep, snoring, insomnia or waking up early in the morning. Then, these students have more problems to perform correctly at the school due to the sleep debt that limits the attention, working memory or learning processes [92]. In fact, these students need to have a nap to adjust their sleep requirements; however, this behavior modifies the sleep-wake cycle and then their neurocognitive and behavioral domains and the increase of BMI [65, 68, 92]. Therefore, from an educational point of view, the students with sleep breathing disorders should be considered when planning specific sleep educational programs.

In this chapter, the associations of two health behaviors, such as physical activity and sleep habits with academic achievement of students, have been explored. This analysis allows us to state that there are many more relationships among them than could be thought in a first

It should be said that if you want to lead a healthy and satisfying life, you should start sleeping well and practice physical activity. The lack of sleep is related to a whole set of diseases that are not conducive to the health of individuals independently of the age of the student. On the other hand, it has been widely demonstrated that good sleep is a key aspect to personal performance. The scientific research has demonstrated the relationships among sleep loss, academic outcomes and school drop-out in adolescent students. The exams encourage adolescents to significantly reduce sleep, drink energetic drinks [85] and adopt sedentary attitudes that may favor the possibility of higher levels of anxiety and stress on the students

**4. Sleep and exercise well during the growing years**

Based on this extensive body of research, some suggestions can be outlined to optimize the effect of physical activity and sleep habits on the academic achievement. Researches findings suggest positive benefits of physical activity throughout a wide range of academic ages, from kindergarten [11] until college [51, 93]. Scientific literature suggests uneven effects as a function of the age, remarking greater effect of physical activity on academic performance in primary school (6–13 years old) in comparison with adolescents (14–18 years old). Thus, students should be encouraged to practice physical activities in early periods of primary school to maximize the potential benefits over the academic achievement [55, 94].

The meta-analysis done by Fedewa and Ahn [95] examined different interventions on children's cognitive outcomes (mathematics, science, reading, English/language, art achievement, grade point average and intellectual quotient). The results showed that, unlike resistance/circuit training and their combinations, aerobic training, physical education program and perceptual motor training (in that order) significantly affected the academic achievement [46]. Other authors stated that there is still no clear evidence regarding which programs are more effective for cognitive performance. The aerobic and motor skills programs (both combined with cognitive engaging) seem to be the most efficient ones [31]. In the same terms, other studies confirm that the aerobic capacity confers the greatest effect on academic achievement [47]. There is strong evidence that supports the positive association between both cardiorespiratory fitness and physical fitness (classified into clusters) with academic achievement, whereas the relationship between strength and flexibility remains unclear [59]. Regarding intensity, while there are some researches that relate the practice of moderate physical activity with positive academic benefits, the practice of vigorous and moderate-to-vigorous levels of physical activity has been found to provide greater positive effects on the academic achievement [14].

**Author details**

Spain

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Luis M. Ruiz-Pérez\*, Miguel A. Gómez-Ruano and José A. Navia-Manzano

Faculty of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences (INEF), Technical University of Madrid,

Physical Activity Practice, Sleeping Habits and Academic Achievement

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71282

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\*Address all correspondence to: luismiguel.ruiz@upm.es

On the other hand, the frequency is a key issue when controlling for physical activity and academic performance. The effect of physical activity has been proved to report significantly higher benefits when provided three and two times per week (i.e., better improvements with a frequency of three times per week). Moreover, it has been identified a positive correlation between the improvement of academic performances and attending three or more physical education classes per week was positively correlated with improved academic school performances [96]. Accordingly, we highly recommend the practice of aerobic fitness and motor skills training, with a minimum intensity of moderate-to-vigorous and with a frequency of 3 days per week, as the optimal physical activity plan for enhancing academic achievement.

On the other hand, sleep hygiene programs can be implemented to improve the students' health and the effect of sleep quality on the academic performance. The educational stakeholders should implement the sleep hygiene programs focused on the importance of sleep habits and their relationships with academic performance [15, 30, 32, 40]. To do so, the families should establish balanced schedules that combine academic and leisure activities; the children/adolescents should establish a sleep pattern, going to bed early avoiding TV or leisure activities during the week nights and educators and pediatrics should give tips and feedbacks (e.g., avoid afternoon naps, restrict caffeine, do not go to bed immediately after high demanding exercise and sleep without excessive noise and light) for quality sleep advices with annual health examinations [15, 30, 32]. The implementation of these sleep programs would do more than be informative on the importance of sleep hygiene on health and academic performance [40]. It is necessary to teach schoolchildren to sleep well and promote a long-term perspective of the benefits of physical exercise. Therefore, schools should consider their schedules to adjust them to the moments of the day where greater academic and physical performance is possible [82].

Summarizing, the health-promoting school literature shows its potential to improve students' development, both academically and health related. The current chapter adds up to this effort by elaborating on the specific relations of sleep and exercise habits on the academic performance. There is another behavior that significantly affects the adolescents' psychosocial and academic development, such as bullying and compulsive internet use, and not just more traditional healthy topics with strong ties to physical health, such as smoking or alcohol use.

Unfortunately, much is still unknown about the effects that improving health behaviors might have on students' school performances. Indeed, it was justified the need for further research on this topic. Research on mechanisms behind the associations between these health behaviors and school performance is scarce and not conclusive. Therefore, further studies on the explanatory factors are required.
