Influencia de los hábitos de sueño en los alumnos de primer ciclo de Educación Secundaria = Influence of sleep habits in students of the first cycle of Secondary Education

In recent years, there has been a great controversy over which is the optimum amount of sleep a student should get to face successfully a school day. Thus, on one side, there has been a review of a theoretical framework based on investigation and researches of different authors about what sleep is, which the characteristics of sleep in the adolescence are, and how sleep affects the capacity of learning in adolescences. On the other side, the research of sleep habits was carried out with a group of adolescences between 12 and 13 years old from tree educational centers of Madrid Community, with a sample of 420 students of the first and the second cycle of Compulsory Secondary Education, comparing obtained results with the researches referenced in the theoretical framework, in order to contrast the validity of these researches. Moreover, the school records of the students were consulted with an aim to check whether the amount of sleeping hours is a decisive factor to obtain better or worse scores. In conclusion, the results show a relation between sleeping hours and academic performance, recommending sleeping minimum 7.5 hours during the stage of the first cycle of secondary education and rising the possible necessity to readjust school timetable according to the habits of the students.