0164 The Effect of Delaying Class Times on Cognitive Performance in College

Abstract Introduction High school start times have been studied in detail over the past two decades. Findings include better standardized test scores, absenteeism, GPA and fewer sick days with a delayed start time. Few studies to date have examined college course start times, however. The impacts of early college courses on GPA are mixed with one article reporting a better GPA while another reporting the opposite. Many other factors can influence overall GPA such as absenteeism, illness and drug and alcohol use. Because of this, I wanted to determine if there was an impact of early class times on exam scores. I hypothesized that exam scores would be lower on the 7:30 am exam when compared to the 7:30 pm exam. Methods Cumulative freshman level anatomy and physiology final exam scores were analyzed from two different sections during the fall 2017 semester at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Both exams had the same 100 questions, students were given 165 minutes to complete the exam and the same instructor taught both sections. The two exams were administered in different lecture halls. There were 67 students in the 7:30 pm section and 153 students in the 7:30 am section. Results Independent t-tests revealed that there was significantly (p < 0.05) better performance on the 7:30 pm exam (72.9 ± 15.3; mean ± STD) compared to the 7:30 am exam (64.1 ± 17; mean ± STD). Additionally, 19.4% received a failing grade in the 7:30 pm section compared to 46.4% in the 7:30 am section. Conclusion Sleep restriction, sleep inertia and an adverse circadian phase most likely contributed to worse performance on the morning exam, which should be further studied. These results suggest that college start times can have drastic and detrimental impacts on student success. College is expensive and time consuming. Administrators and faculty should be cognizant of class start times to optimize student success. These data suggest early morning classes may be detrimental to student performance and college class start times should be studied in further detail. Support (if any)