Sleeping patterns could affect educational gender gap, research suggests

The different sleeping patterns of boys and girls could be influencing the educational gender gap, according to new research.

A recent paper from the University of California examined the relationship between different gender sleep cycles and educational performance and found that a reason for girls outperforming boy could be linked with the timing of the school day.

The study focused on an experiment in one school district that alternated early and late start times for schools. Keeping variables such as teachers and class ordering constant, the schools alternated each month between a 7.30am start time and a 1.30pm start time.

Analysis of over 240,000 grades over this period found that boys enjoyed a ‘boost in performance’ in response to the later start time and closed the grades gap by 16 per cent.

The reasoning for this, the researchers claim, is due to the fact that boys have ‘longer circadian periods’, or body clocks, which means that are predisposed to later bed times and later morning starts. Essentially, this means that girls are naturally more likely to be morning people, which could be a contributing factor to the large educational gender gap across the western world.