**Physical Activity Practice, Sleeping Habits and Academic Achievement Academic Achievement**

**Physical Activity Practice, Sleeping Habits and** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.71282

Luis M. Ruiz-Pérez, Miguel A. Gómez-Ruano and José A. Navia-Manzano and José A. Navia-Manzano Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Luis M. Ruiz-Pérez, Miguel A. Gómez-Ruano

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

#### **Abstract**

There is a wide body of research that has identified the strong links between health behaviors and academic achievement. The media and official agencies strive to convey to schoolchildren and the public the need to show healthy lifestyles. However, it is striking that sleep habits have been considered in few occasions within healthy behaviors to be developed and promoted. Schools should encourage their students to be active because the effect of physical exercise will promote sleep and will positively affect the performance of academic tasks. Then, it is necessary to revitalize and establish the subject of Physical Education and Sport practice properly where the students can meet a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week. This approach will have a direct impact on the school children's performance and health. Therefore, the key question is to decide whether educational centers must promote active lifestyles where sleep and exercise will be promoting or maintain schools where the body and body intelligence remain an irrelevant matter.

**Keywords:** academic performance, health, childhood, adolescence, sleep habits, exercise

#### **1. Introduction**

Many variables impinge on college students' academic success. What do children and adolescents need to be academically successful? How children's and adolescent's health is related to academic achievement? Are physical activity practice and sleep habits components of children's and adolescent's health? Moreover, how these components affect the academic performance? are some of the key questions that this chapter tries to account for.

The available research has reported that increasing the physical activity practice is beneficial for children's and adolescent's health and education [1–4]. Thus, schools must focus their

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attention on implementing physical activity interventions (e.g., increasing the number of physical education hours per week) with the aim to improve the pupils' health as well as to reduce the obesity levels among adolescents. Nevertheless, the physical education is considered a second layer in the educational process due to the concern of educative policies about reaching the adequate standards of academic achievements among students. Then, the educative policies establish the reduction and, in some cases, the elimination of physical education classes. The traditional education research considers that pupils should employ the time studying the theoretical subjects instead on spending time doing physical activities [5–9].

The media and official agencies strive to convey to schoolchildren and the public the need to show healthy lifestyles. As was pointed out by Sánchez [20], the effectiveness of these messages is determined, at least partially, by the direct cost and benefits of these behaviors to citizens. According to the results obtained, their effectiveness is put into question due to the obesity and sedentary pandemic situation in Western societies among the youngest [21]; increased consume of tobacco, alcohol and drugs among adolescents [22, 23]; increased cases of violence and bullying in schools [24, 25]; the increase of pregnant adolescents [17] or the increase of sedentarism of children and adolescents from different cultural backgrounds [26]. These issues affect the lives of children and adolescents and, therefore, have an impact on the decline of their academic performance [27]. It is striking that sleep habits have been considered in few occasions within healthy behaviors to be developed and promoted [27, 28]. In fact, it is well known that adolescents, who sleep less than 7 hours daily, have a higher risk of fail and drop out [29]. In sum, the scientific research has studied the main aspects of this chapter (i.e., physical activity, sleeping habits and academic achievement) in isolated conditions. However, there are few reviews of available research that relate either physical activity or academic achievement or sleep habits with physical activity practices or sleep habits with academic achievement [27]. Thus, the purpose of this chapter was to describe the relationships among these three variables and specifically how to practice physical activity and how sleep well affect the academic achievement of students throughout their academic life. Three areas of scientific literature have been analyzed to allow a better understanding of this problem: (i) literature about the relationships between physical activity practice and academic achievement; (ii) literature dealing with the relationships between sleep habits and academic achievement and (iii) literature reporting the effects of physi-

Physical Activity Practice, Sleeping Habits and Academic Achievement

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

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cal activity practice and sleep well on the health and academic achievement.

During the past 10 years, the effect of physical activity on academic achievement has become a more important topic with a growing number of scientific works published about this issue [30, 31]. Throughout this section, we (i) discuss the influence of physical activity upon academic achievement; (ii) analyze which psychophysiological effects of physical activity support that association and (iii) raise some recommendations of physical practice when aiming to improve the academic achievement. The academic performance can reflect several factors influencing the school success. For instance, Rasberry et al. [32] employed three categories: (a) cognitive skills and attitudes, (b) academic behaviors and (c) academic achievement. In this section, we focus our attention on the academic achievement defined as the test scores in subjects such as mathematics, reading, language art, social sciences and any other formal

At a first glance, parents are concerned about the academic achievement of their children. Then, they may think that the involvement in physical activities could hamper the forthcoming

**2. Physical activity and academic achievement**

assessment regarding school areas or subjects.

**2.1. More studying and less doing sports?**

However, the recent research supports that physical activity practice is related with improvements in cognitive and memory functions of the brain [10]. In fact, the increase of physical activity may improve the school performance and academic achievements in children and adolescents [11]. For instance, it seems to exist a positive relationship between motor competence (achieved through physical activity practice) and academic performance [12]. Specifically, in the female students, the academic achievement was associated with the practice of vigorous physical activity, whereas in male students the academic achievement was associated with a greater extent with fitness [13]. Overall, the evidence supports that the practice of physical activity leads to improvements on both cognitive and academic performance [14, 15].

On the other hand, regular sleep is fundamental on health and growth of children and adolescents. Thus, the lack of sleep and sleep deprivation is associated with adverse physical and psychological consequences. The scientific research indicates that a good sleep quality is not only fundamental in determining a good health state, but it is also a main component for a good quality of life and academic performance [16]. For instance, it has been found that children and teenagers who suffer from circadian misalignment (i.e., insufficient sleep during the weekdays and oversleeping on weekends) have a lower academic, cognitive and sport performance than those who rest more regularly and with better sleep quality [3].

#### **1.1. Health and education**

There are a lot of researches that have showed the strong links between health behaviors, psychosocial behaviors and academic achievement [17]. International organizations, such as the World Health Organization, in their different proposals have stressed the need for schools to be the core of health promotion, which should be translated into curricular improvements proposed to develop healthy habits, and the involvement of families and social agents to support these initiatives. The objective is the development of skills and competences that favor the health of students and a better adaptation to life [18].

At present, studies that have analyzed the relationships between healthy behaviors and academic performance have increased markedly. However, what is referenced when talking about health and healthy behaviors? Health is a state of complete emotional and physical well-being. This concept during the school age has been focused on those who favor good nutrition; do not use tobacco, alcohol or drugs; do not show violent behaviors; practice safe sex and do not practice physical activity [19].

The media and official agencies strive to convey to schoolchildren and the public the need to show healthy lifestyles. As was pointed out by Sánchez [20], the effectiveness of these messages is determined, at least partially, by the direct cost and benefits of these behaviors to citizens. According to the results obtained, their effectiveness is put into question due to the obesity and sedentary pandemic situation in Western societies among the youngest [21]; increased consume of tobacco, alcohol and drugs among adolescents [22, 23]; increased cases of violence and bullying in schools [24, 25]; the increase of pregnant adolescents [17] or the increase of sedentarism of children and adolescents from different cultural backgrounds [26]. These issues affect the lives of children and adolescents and, therefore, have an impact on the decline of their academic performance [27]. It is striking that sleep habits have been considered in few occasions within healthy behaviors to be developed and promoted [27, 28]. In fact, it is well known that adolescents, who sleep less than 7 hours daily, have a higher risk of fail and drop out [29].

In sum, the scientific research has studied the main aspects of this chapter (i.e., physical activity, sleeping habits and academic achievement) in isolated conditions. However, there are few reviews of available research that relate either physical activity or academic achievement or sleep habits with physical activity practices or sleep habits with academic achievement [27]. Thus, the purpose of this chapter was to describe the relationships among these three variables and specifically how to practice physical activity and how sleep well affect the academic achievement of students throughout their academic life. Three areas of scientific literature have been analyzed to allow a better understanding of this problem: (i) literature about the relationships between physical activity practice and academic achievement; (ii) literature dealing with the relationships between sleep habits and academic achievement and (iii) literature reporting the effects of physical activity practice and sleep well on the health and academic achievement.
