This piece of advice seems first a bit strange:

Struggling with a teenager who refuses to ditch digital devices at night and wakes up grumpy? Boarding school could be the answer.

But it’s correct: boarding schools often have stricter device use and social media rules. A new study shows that this leads to an average of 40 minutes more sleep. Do note that the study only used students from the same school.

From the press release:

Struggling with a teenager who refuses to ditch digital devices at night and wakes up grumpy? Boarding school could be the answer.

A new study by University of South Australia researchers shows that boarders get 40 minutes more sleep most nights than day students, due to fixed bedtimes and stricter policies around technology use.

They go to bed earlier and wake up later, despite sleeping in shared, sometimes noisy, dormitories — factors that are normally associated with disrupted sleep.

The findings are based on a survey of 309 students from a co-educational school in Adelaide, including 59 boarders and 250 day students.

Published in the British Journal of Educational Psychology, the study also found that despite teen boarders getting more sleep, they experienced similar levels of stress, anxiety, and depression to their day peers.

UniSA researcher Dr Alex Agostini says the structured routine of a boarding school — with set times for sport, dinner, study, socialising, and lights out — was more conducive to sleep.

“Night-time routine and restricting technology seem to be the key to better sleep and this was borne out by feedback both from the students surveyed and the focus groups we interviewed,” Dr Agostini says.

While homesickness can often disrupt sleep for new boarders, once they settle into their new environment and make friends, this usually settles down.

Boarding school is a double edged sword for many students, the researchers say. While it can promote social connections, life satisfaction and better academic outcomes, it is also associated with loneliness, behavioural problems, and isolation.

These issues are especially common in adolescence, which is well recognised for the onset of mental health issues, with a clear link to sleep disruption.

Female boarders reported higher stress levels and loneliness than their male counterparts, but there were no significant gender differences in any of the sleep or technology use variables.

Abstract of the study:

Background
Boarding students face unique challenges when entering school, including: adapting to a novel environment, where they are separated from family, friends and culture, for up to 40 weeks per year. A particular challenge is sleep. A further challenge is coping with the demands of boarding with its potential impact on psychological well-being.

Aims
To explore how boarders’ sleep differs from that of their day-student peers, and how this relates to psychological well-being.

Sample and Methods
309 students (59 boarding students and 250 day-students, at one Adelaide school) completed the School Sleep Habits Survey, Depression-Anxiety-Stress-Scale-21 (DASS-21), and Flourishing Scale. Boarding students additionally completed the Utrecht Homesickness Scale. Thirteen boarding students described experiences of sleeping in boarding through focus groups.

Results
Boarding students, compared to day-students reported 40 minutes more sleep per weeknight (p < .001), with earlier sleep onset (p = .026), and later wake-up (p = .008) times. No significant differences were observed between boarding’ and day-students’ DASS-21 scores. Hierarchical regression revealed longer total weekday sleep time predicted higher psychological well-being in both boarding and day-students. Additionally, in boarding students, low homesickness-loneliness and homesickness-ruminations further predicted psychological well-being. Thematic analysis of boarding students’ focus group responses revealed that night-time routine, and restricting technology use at night facilitated sleep.

Conclusions
This study supports – in both boarding and day-students – the importance of sleep for adolescent well-being. Sleep hygiene can play an important role in boarding student sleep, especially: regular night-time routine and restricting technology use at night. Finally, these findings suggest that poor sleep and homesickness have an adverse effect on boarding student psychological well-being. This study highlights the importance of strategies which promote sleep hygiene and minimize homesickness, in boarding school students.