Sleep Habit Correlation with Academic Performance

Problem Statement

a)

Since I can remember my parents have always instilled the sense of importance and accomplishment that goes with education. I was always encouraged to continue to look for any means necessary to help me achieve my goals and to do well in school. Ive used several tutoring classes, literature with helpful studying tips, and after school study sessions as different ways, and my family also tried to provide me with the potential tools to succeed as well. However, no matter how much most of us try to study or prepare for upcoming exams there are days or moments when we go completely blank, or our memory fails to recall the information we need. In spite of all the preparation, we come up short. Why does this happen?

The applied setting for this research is college, where learners struggle to reach their academic goals.

b)

For my research study my topic of interest within the field of cognitive psychology will be about memory, sleep habits, and if possible, to see the potential effects of participants academic performance and how it is relevant in mental health.

Two theories that may be used to help guide this research are 1) Maslows theory of the hierarchy of human needs, which posits that humans have basic foundational needs that must be met before they can achieve self-actualization; and 2) Orems self-care deficit theory, which was published in 1971 and posits that natural resilience is something people should have and do have when they personally take care of themselves. When people neglect to maintain their health, including getting enough rest, they negatively impact their minds and bodies. Allison (2007) states that achieving a balance

between activity and rest (a universalself-carerequisite) is a legitimate concern and thus making sure rest is achieved is important for health (p. 68). Helping learners to understand why they need more rest and sleep for academic achievement might help them to reach their academic goals.

c)

Specific issues related to your contemporary problem, the applied setting, and the limits of the human cognitive system are that poor sleep habits can be viewed as negative unhealthy habits that have been linked to mental health issues like anxiety (Vazsonyi et al., 2021). The problem of poor sleep habits relates to the applied setting, what we know about cognition, and how this impacts performance because sleep affects the brain and bodys ability to perform in the academic setting. A student who does not get sufficient rest but who believes mistakenly that he is sufficiently healthy is one who may struggle to understand why he or she is not reaching academic goals.

d)

For my project I will be conducting a research study to answer the following research questions:

What kind of study techniques can students use to improve their memory?

How do healthy sleeping habits affect students with their memory recall?

If a student is suffering from a mental health issue or disorder will these strategies still be as effective to improve academic performance?

Contemporary Relevance

a)

Bower et al. (2010) found that poor reported sleep quality is predictive of negative affects in daily life among people who may otherwise be described as having a healthy mindset. Moreover, Cox et al. (2020) found that insomnia and post traumatic stress disorder share similar symptoms, suggesting that trauma and restlessness have a meaningful association. Is lack of rest indicative of some untreated or undiagnosed trauma? Or is a lack of ability to rest itself a kind of trauma? In either case, it stands to reason that rest impairment is a problem especially for students at college who need rest in order to perform well. Does stress prevent them from obtaining rest?

Orems self-care theory applies well to this issue because it focuses on the ability of the individual to be responsible for his or her own health and health choices. Self-care theory posits that people can take ownership of their own lives, make adjustments to their lifestyles, and ultimately maintain a higher quality of life. This theory has significant utility but it is also limited by the fact that it must be taught to people in order for them to understand its potential.

Maslows theory is strong because it emphasizes the basic foundational needs like physical needs, such as food, shelter, rest, security, that must be met before a person can become able to perform at a higher level. The idea is that a person who is distracted by basic concerns might not have enough energy or confidence to reach full potential. The limitation of this idea is that people who live ascetic lifestyles or who do not concern themselves with lower level needs can sometimes perform at vry high levels; and one example could be Gandhi.

Vazsonyi et al. (2021) also have some theoretical importance here: they theorized that over a period of time of students performing and doing healthy sleep habits that this would predict a positive developmental change and outcome in the students lives. They explain how negative unhealthy habits have been linked to mental health issues like anxiety but also provide information on how to improve this behavior.

b)

Orems self-care theory has the most utility as it allows one to see rest as recreation and defines the amount of sleep a healthy person should have (Allison, 2007). However, it is also the theoretical perspective of Vazsonyi et al. (2021) that will be most useful in guiding this research, as they have identified a number of correlations that will be helpful in examining the research from the standpoint of different inputs.

Interpretation of...…issues.

One other strategy is to offer students a place where they can rest, recreate, and sleep (using sleep pods) in case they find their own dorms or homes too chaotic or need to rest or sleep in between classes. This could be a way to bring rest opportunities to students in the setting.

The study will rely on a survey to gather data. Qualtrics will be the tool used to create and administer the survey. Qualtrics is an online platform endorsed by the SNHU for use in this project, and it offers an easy and intuitive way of creating and administering the survey (Molnar, 2019). Due to its relative ease of use, Qualtrics offers the study participants an easy way to access the study survey and respond. For the researcher, it is easy to create questions and gather data from the survey tool after the respondents have finished answering. The best thing about the survey tool is that you can generate test responses to see what the data set and report will look like before sending the survey to the study participants (Molnar, 2019). Any corrections can then be made, ensuring one captures the correct data.

b)

The implications for using these strategies and techniques is that they would give students an opportunity to try out new rest and sleep exercises in new settings. It would also mean researchers could observe students rest and sleep activities directly. It would finally mean that students can take ownership of their rest and sleep schedules and potentially be better prepared to pursue their academic aims.

Conclusion

A potential future direction to addressing the critical problem is to discuss with students how they understand the concepts of rest and sleep and what they do to make sure they have rest and sleep opportunities, or whether they do not prioritize rest and sleep because they believe they are young and not in need of rest or sleep. Implementation of my proposed solution could add to the existing body of research on the topic by explaining how students react to new sleep and rest opportunities on campus and whether they take advantage of these opportunities the way some learners take advantage of tutoring, or whether they ignore. It would be interesting to see what students gain from Orems self-care training and if this has any impact on their academic performance.

It may also be needed that a mental health professional is available to discuss with students how they might implement person-tailored rest and sleep strategies. In a different setting it might also be important to understand how sleep and rest affect mental health patients in a hospital for instance, and whether sleep is produced via a pharmaceutical aid or if it is naturally induced. It might be interesting to see whether there is…