- Enock Okong’o says adequate sleep should be treated as part of academic preparation in universities.
- He cites a Pittsburgh study showing that incentives for seven-hour sleep improved students’ academic performance.
- Okong’o argues that Kenyan universities should strengthen sleep education, digital wellness and responsible student habits.
Kenyan universities have a lot to learn from the University of Pittsburgh when it comes to helping students achieve quality academic results.
The University of Pittsburgh in the United States has experimented with paying students to sleep, and the findings offer a useful lesson for university students in Kenya who spend overnight hours on betting platforms, social media and other online activities instead of getting enough rest before class.
A study published online in July 2026 in the Journal of Political Economy found that paying selected college students about US$5 for each night they slept at least seven hours improved both sleep and academic performance.
The research was conducted by Osea Giuntella of the University of Pittsburgh, Silvia Saccardo of Carnegie Mellon University and Sally Sadoff of the University of California, San Diego. More than 1,100 University of Pittsburgh undergraduates participated, with sleep monitored using Fitbit devices.
The researchers reported that half of surveyed students said they usually went to bed after 1 a.m., while about a quarter went to bed after 2 a.m.
In Kenya, many university students also spend late-night hours on their phones, including on betting platforms as well as social media and entertainment sites.
They then report for early lectures tired, distracted and unable to concentrate effectively.
The Pittsburgh study shows why this matters.
The researchers gave participants Fitbit trackers and an app that provided bedtime reminders and morning feedback. A randomly selected group of 468 students received about US$5 for each weeknight they slept at least seven hours during the four-week intervention.
The intervention increased the proportion of weeknights with at least seven hours of sleep by 26 per cent and raised average sleep duration by about 19 minutes per night during the treatment period.
Students receiving immediate incentives also recorded an improvement of about 0.075 to 0.089 grade points in average semester course performance.
The researchers further found that some sleep improvements persisted after the payments ended, although the study reported that the post-treatment effects of immediate incentives were not clearly distinguishable from those of some other interventions.
Lesson for Kenyan universities
For Kenya, the lesson is not necessarily that universities should begin paying students to sleep.
The bigger lesson is that sleep should be recognised as part of academic performance and student well-being.
Vice-chancellors, deans of students and parents should pay greater attention to late-night habits that interfere with learning.
Universities should consider incorporating sleep education and digital wellness programmes into student orientation and counselling services.
First-year students may be particularly vulnerable because many are adjusting for the first time to greater personal freedom, new social environments and independent financial decisions.
Student leaders and counsellors can therefore encourage regular sleep routines, responsible use of phones and healthier study schedules instead of overnight gambling, binge-watching and endless scrolling.
The Pittsburgh study also found that the intervention did not increase students’ total study time. Instead, students shifted some studying away from late-night hours, suggesting that better timing of study can matter as much as the number of hours spent reading.
The message from Pittsburgh is clear: good grades do not come only from extra tuition, long library hours and academic support programmes.
They also depend on habits outside the classroom.
Switching off the phone, leaving the betting app and getting adequate sleep can make a meaningful difference to concentration and learning.
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A student who sleeps well is better placed to cope with academic demands, retain information and make sound decisions than one who spends the night watching betting graphs or scrolling endlessly through a phone.
If Kenyan university students want to improve academic performance, they must also win the battle of the night.
By Enock Okong’o
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