Sleep Deprivation: Research Proposal

Chapter 1.0: Introduction

Sleep is an important requirement in life. With the today's 24 working hour economy, most hours during the night are primarily used for working. It is estimated that the average sleep time has been reduced by 20% since the 20th century. This means that our sleep habits have changed yet our bodies have not undergone any transformation. A study by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) in 2011 indicates that 80% of Americans do not sleep for eight hours daily and only 30% reported to have slept for about more than 8 hours daily. This happens because the US has become a 24 hour economy as most people spend more time working than sleeping. Besides, the study showed that about 20% of people in the US feel sleepy daytime and this affect their daily activities. Thus, sleep deprivation has caused reduced productivity, accidents in the workplace, delayed reactions, dips in attention, and mistakes, which could have been avoided through enough sleep.

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1.1: Need

Sleep is very critical in the health of human beings. Sleep deprivation primarily make people to feel sleepy and become unproductive, and it is also a causal factor of Alzheimer's disease. Most studies have looked at the correlation between sleep deprivation and individual performance and task productivity. Besides, lack of sleep is primarily related to negative academic performance. For example, a study by Curcio, Ferrara, and Gennaro, (2006) showed that students with deprived sleep perform poor on problem-solving tasks, memory, and attention, and their academic performance is also impacted adversely. However, most studies focused on the impact of sleep deprivation and its relationship with job performance. Besides, few researches have looked into the impact of sleep and college students' academic performance. Therefore, since sleep deprivation diminish cognitive performance and alertness, and impairs logic reasoning, working memory, attention and reaction time. It is important to study the effects of sleep deprivation on undergraduate students.

1.2: Significance of the Study

The importance of this study is that it influences all walks of life. Lack of sleep cut across all gender and age, racial, ethnic, educational, religious, economic, social, and cultural lines. Most people in the United States suffer from sleepiness during the day, which affects their performance and daily activities. This problem of sleeping during the day is a major issue among employers, safety experts, educators, health care professionals, and parents. Besides, sleep deprivation may lead to life threatening issues, which makes it important for everyone to be aware of. Since lack of sleep affects academic performance, it should be emphasized as part of education, thereby increasing the knowledge between the association between sleep and performance.

1.3: Study Purpose

It is estimated that about 80% of people in America are sleep deprived. As a result, most scientists continue to wonder if lack of sleep has a negative influence in creativity, performance and brain power. When a person is sleep deprived, some parts of the brain remain dormant or may shut down leading to impairment especially in alertness, memory, and attention. These aspects are important for students for them to achieve academic success and performance. However, a person who is sleep deprived cannot wan not perform well compared to other individuals who have enough sleep. Therefore, sleep is important for everyone's well-being. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of sleep deprivation on job performance and academic performance of both graduate and undergraduate students.

1.4: Hypothesis

The independent variable will be the amount of sleep by college students. On the other hand, the dependent variable will be the academic performance. It is hypothesized that the average level of sleep received per night by college student's influence their academic performance. The second hypothesis is that both undergraduate and graduate students will have the similar implication between their sleep and academic performance. The third hypothesis is to sleep deprivation and productivity has a negative relationship.

Chapter 2.0: Literature Review

Pilcher and Huffcutt (1996) carried out a study to show how sleep deprivation affect performance and health. They carried a meta-analysis about the effect of sleep deprivation on performance based o 19 studies conducted between 1985 and 1992. The sleep deprivation was the independent variable and it was measured using the partial sleep deprivation, short-term total sleep deprivation, and long-term total sleep deprivation. The dependent variables were mood, motor performance and cognitive performance. The study results showed that partial lack of sleep negatively impacted mood, the impact of partial sleep deprivation on performance was clearer than short-term total sleep deprivation and long-term total sleep deprivation. However, the study concluded that more research was needed to research the effect of partial sleep deprivation on academic performance.

A study by Kelly, Kelly, and Clanton (2001) collected college student volunteers' grade point averages (GPAs) of 147 volunteers. The participants were dived into long sleepers, average sleepers, and short sleeper. The study showed that the GPAs of short sleepers were considered to be lower than longer sleepers.

Curcio et al. (2006) in their study reviewed 103 studies related to academic performance, learning capacity and sleep loss. The sample used in the study included students from elementary school to the university in the studies selected. About 37 studies involved high school and elementary students and they were the primary focus of the research because the students were still in their learning development phase. The study results showed that lack of enough sleep was linked to poor academic performance among students including their problem-solving tasks, memory, and attention. Besides, the study indicated that lack of sleep led to sleepiness during the day, and this was also linked to poor performance.

Snyder (2003) also carried out a study on the impact of partial sleep deprivation on productivity. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. About 30 employees were randomly selected to determine how many hours they slept every night and their general productivity level. The researcher then used Pearson's correlation analysis to find out the productivity level of each individual. The study findings indicated that the participants who slept more than 9 hours were more productive than individuals who slept less than 9 hours. However, the study recommended that further studies need to select a particular occupation and explore the impact of sleep deprivation based on tools inclined with that occupation.

Chapter 3.0: Methodology

3.1: Participants

The study population will involve undergraduate students in the public universities in the United States. The population will also involve both male and female participants of the age between 10 and 17 years old from different public universities in the US. Thus, sample of 120 students will recommended for the study; 70 male students and 50 female students. Therefore, different education levels, socioeconomic backgrounds, race, and ages will be involved in the study. Besides, since the study population will be the minors and they cannot consent for themselves to participate in the study due to vulnerability they may face, the researcher will have to possibly obtain consent from the school administrator, teachers and parents before beginning the research.

3.2: Measures

An online questionnaire will be used as an instrument to help collect data. The survey will consist the demographic data, which involves students' classification status, academic major, race, age, gender, address, email address and student ID. This will help to analyze the data based on subgroups and ensure that the data is the same within the entire study population. Section two of the survey will involve the items with sleep quality and sleep habits. The items will help to measure the sleep quality, daytime dysfunction, usage of sleeping medicine, sleep disturbances, sleep latency, sleep duration and habitual sleep efficiency. The survey will also involve a Likert Scale and multiple choice questions. The 5-point Likert scale will range between 1 and 5: (1 = very bad to 5 = very good; 1 = never to 5 = always).

The sleep hour's instrument will be used to determine the students who are sleep-deprived and non-sleep-deprived. Section three of the questionnaire will involve the four items to determine student's performance. Two items will require the students to write the credits they earned during their semester. To increase data validation, more data on the students GPA will be obtained from each school's registrar's office. The final section will involve performance to determine the influence of sleep deprivation on student's academic success and performance.

3.3: Procedure

A total of 120 participants will take part in the study. The study will take a period of two weeks and carried out through the internet or online survey. The online survey will be developed through the use of SurveyGizmoTM software. The researcher will first seek the informed consent from the school administrator and student's email will be requested. The questionnaire will then be emailed to all students selected and they will be given a period of two weeks to email back the online questionnaire. The researcher will send each participant a reminder that would require them to email back the filled questionnaire. The researcher will also request the school registrar to provide student's ID, completed credits and GPA to verify the self reporting's of the student's credits and GPA. Each student ID will help to link the GPAs with responses. The researcher will ensure that the information collected remains confidential and only accessible to authorized stakeholders. The level of confidentiality required in this study will involve the anonymity of individuals included in the research. The presentation of the discussion and results will ensure that no groups of individuals are overrepresented. It is also important to note that the participation in the online survey will be voluntary and there will be no repercussions for those who would wish to withdraw from the study. Moreover, the researcher will work with the collected information without modification, additions, or exclusions to present the exact results. Therefore, the research process will adhere to transparency and trust.

3.4: Design

The study design will be both descriptive and experimental in nature to help determine how sleep deprivation has a negative influence on student's academic performance. The researcher will also use both qualitative and quantitative research. The proposed research will be based on a qualitative methodology. The method involves the analysis of the views, beliefs, perceptions, and ideas of participants based on available data and literature relating to the topic. The analysis of the opinion of respondent based on the selected theoretical framework will enable the researcher to present the problem from multiple viewpoints. Qualitative research is essential in evaluating this topic because the use of quantitative analysis will not reveal the intensity of experiences of the SMEs in the country. Therefore, the method will allow participants to share their understanding from individual and collective perspective to ensure that the researcher incorporates a range of assessments. The target of the proposed study is to evaluate the impacts, which require a high level of validity and reliability; however, limited variables can be...