Effects of sleep on Academic Performance (Research Paper Sample)

Effects of sleep on Academic Performance
Cam T. Hin, Gloria Garcia, Naybi Magana
San Diego Mesa College
Abstract
The human body requires sufficient sleep, just as it requires food and air to function normally. However, many individuals do not always embrace the need to get adequate sleep. College students report more inconsistent sleep schedules, daytime sleepiness, and low-quality sleep than the general population. The primary purpose of this study was to establish the association between academic performance and the effects of sleep among college students. The research used a sample size of 100 San Diego Mesa College students. The participants were selected using a non-probabilistic sampling technique. This study employed an online survey design. This investigation found a significant difference in the academic performance between college students with short sleep duration and those with sufficient sleep duration. The results supported the hypothesis that short sleep duration leads to low academic performance.
Effects of sleep on Academic Performance
Sleep is a very crucial component of human health and well-being. The human body requires sufficient sleep, just as it requires food and air to function normally. Sleep also plays a vital role in memory consolidation (Pacheco & Rehman, 2020). However, many individuals do not always embrace the need to get adequate sleep. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (2017), an adult needs more than or equal to seven hours of sleep to have good health and well-being; less than seven hours defines a short sleep duration.
Individuals who lack enough sleep are likely to encounter the impact of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is a state that results from inadequate quality or quantity of sleep. It can bring harm to a person's physical and mental health, academic performance, and quality of life. Many scholars have found the association between sleep and cognitive abilities to be a topic of interest. Several studies have indicated that better sleep is related to improved learning and better memory. Preserving memories and discarding information happens during the rapid eye movement and the non-rapid eye movement stages of a person's sleep cycle (Pacheco & Rehman, 2020).
According to Raley et al. (2016), college students report inconsistent sleep schedules, daytime sleepiness, and low quality sleep more than the general population. They also report fewer hours of sleep than the recommended hours each night; this results in poor overall academic performance. Gilbert & Weaver (2010) also agree that sleep deprivation is prominent among college students and is related to poor academic performance. Generally, short sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, and irregular sleep schedules have a negative impact on college students' GPA (Okano, 2019; Hershner & Chervin, 2014; Chen et al., 2014; Hysing et al., 2016).
This study, therefore, aims to add knowledge into the relationship between academic performance, sleep, and its implications. There is a need to do more research on this topic since academic performance is linked to subsequent work and educational attainment. The primary purpose of this study was to establish the association between academic performance and the effects of sleep. Based on previous literature, the hypothesis formulated for this study was that short sleep duration leads to low academic performance.
Method
Design
This study employed the use of a survey research design. This study design helps investigators administer surveys to a sample or the whole population to gather quantitative data. The survey data helps to describe trends in behaviors and attitudes, analyze the characteristics of the population, and test hypotheses. The dependent variable was academic performance, while the independent variable was sleep quantity.
Participants
The target population for this study was college students. The research used a sample size of 100 San Diego Mesa College students. The participants were selected using a non-probabilistic sampling technique. Among the participants, 47 were males, while 53 were females. The participants' age was between 18 and 47 years, with a mean of 20.28 years ( SD = 4.81).
Procedure
This study used a convenience sampling technique to sample the college students. Student volunteers were requested to participate in a survey of the effects of sleep on academic performance. This study employed online survey research because it is a more cost-effective and less time-consuming alternative than traditional quantitative data collection methods such as face-to-face, postal, and telephone surveys. This approach allows the researcher to gather vast amounts of data from a large sample in a shorter time. Besides, an online survey is the most appropriate since this study will involve students familiar with the internet. This survey was created using google forms and did not contain many questions to prevent tiring and overwhelming the participants, which could lead to an increase in the drop-off rates. The google form survey was presented to the students through a link sent to them via email. The participants were free to withdraw from the survey at any time.
Ethical considerations
Concerns over informed consent, confidentiality, and anonymity are likely to arise during the study since it involves human subjects. Several ethical issues were considered to address these issues. Informed consent was sought by issuing participants a consent form detailing the investigation's purpose, procedures, and potential benefits. It specified that participation was voluntary to ensure that it was free from any form of coercion. Data confidentiality and response anonymity were ensured by excluding any detail that could potentially identify the respondents. Research findings will be offered to the school through a written summary of the findings.
Results
One hundred and six students completed the google forms survey. However, three respondents were not included in the research since they were below 18 years. Also, the data of three participants were not used since they did not complete the survey. One hundred participants were included in the sample, and their responses were analyzed using MS Excel. Most participants were females (n = 53) with less males (n = 47). On average, the age of the students was 20.28 years (M=20.28, SD = 4.81). The minimum age of the participants was 18 years, while the maximum was 47 years. Most students were 18 years.
Additionally, 45 participants were freshmen, 24 were sophomores, 13 were juniors, and 18 were seniors. Those who recorded 6 hours or less of sleep were 48, while those recorded more than 6 hours of sleep were 52. A chi-square test was conducted to establish the relationship between sleep duration and gender. The association between these two variables was significant, X2 (1, N = 100) = 4.76, p = .03. This implied that men and women did not have equal sleep duration.
An independent t-test was carried out to test this study's hypothesis. First, the independent variable, sleep quantity, was used to classify the participants into two groups. Those who slept 6 hours or less were considered to have a short sleep, while the rest were classified into the sufficient sleep group. Second, the dependent variable, academic performance, was measured using the respondent's overall GPA. The primary aim of this test was to assess the difference between the means of the two groups on the dependent variable (Academic performance).
This investigation found no significant difference in the academic performance between college students with short sleep duration and those with sufficient sleep, t (98) = -3.18, p < 0.05. Students from the short sleep group (M=2.87, SD = 0.54) performed significantly poorer th