Sleep Study Determining best Time to Sleep

SLEEP STUDY

Sleep Study

Methods

Participants

The study participants will comprise students currently enrolled in the Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) Online Studies program. It is anticipated the participants will be between 7-12 students. To ensure we have a representative population, the researcher will ensure they have an equal number of participants representing males and females. Having a balanced sample can generalize the study results for the population under study, and both genders will be equally represented in the results. For this reason, the study will rely on purposive sampling when selecting the population to participate in the study. The main requirement for the prospective study participants is they should be currently enrolled students of the SNHU Online Studies program. The students will be requested to participate in the study, and only those who show willingness will be included.

Materials

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.

Procedures

To ensure we have the required study participants, the survey will only be sent to students interested in participating in the study. The students will receive a link to the survey in their emails, and they will be required to answer the questions truthfully. We can determine the students who receive the survey link with purposive sampling. The goal was to ensure we had a balanced study representing all genders. Therefore, before the link is sent out, the researcher will gather the students’ email addresses and determine who will receive the survey. The survey questions will require the students to offer information on the average number of hours they sleep each night, how many hours they study at night, if they ever go to sleep right after studying, whether sleeping right after studying assists with memory retention and their daily stress levels. The variables for the study will be analyzed to establish if the study hypothesis is confirmed or rejected.

Ethical Considerations

The SNHU has authorized the study, and only students enrolled in SNHU are allowed to participate in the study. The researcher will invite interested participants to participate in the survey by posting fliers around the school and on social media pages of the school. The interested participants will respond to the email provided with information about their name, gender, and the online course. The researcher will then select the study participants who will participate in the study based on their identified gender and if they are enrolled in an online study program. These selected participants will receive a consent form stating what is required of them and the data collected for the research. The study will only include those participants who respond affirmatively in the consent form. A study participant will have the option of refusing to proceed with the survey even if they have already given their consent (Perrault & Keating, 2018). To guarantee the privacy of the study participants, no identifiable information will be published in study findings and results (Bender et al., 2020). Therefore, the study participants will only be known to the researcher, and their records will be deleted after completing the course.

Some of the study participants might experience some stress levels, and the researcher will provide the study participants with the phone number of the SNHU counseling office when the survey ends. The study participants will be encouraged to contact a mental health professional if they feel stressed or bothered after the survey.

Data Analysis

The researcher will enter all the survey responses into SPSS for analysis. SPSS is a statistical software suite used for data management, multivariate analysis, and advanced analytics. Entering the raw data into SPSS allows the researcher to gain an in-depth look into the data. The goal is to compare the results for the males and females and determine any correlations, similarities, and differences between the genders. SPSS will allow the researcher to determine the mean and standard deviation of the selected variables. It is possible to create graphical representations of the data for easy analysis and understanding. Using SPSS, we can identify trends, develop predictive models, and draw informed conclusions from the data.

Descriptive Statistics

According to Kaliyadan and Kulkarni (2019) descriptive statistics are used to explain data in meaningful and valuable ways. It would be meaningful and valuable for the survey data to know the differences between males and females. However, it would not be helpful to find out the preferred shoe color even if it was asked in the survey. Therefore, the use of descriptive statistics will present simple summaries and measures. We will identify the average sleep duration for most students, then break it down between males and females. Memory retention will be gauged to determine the number of respondents who state they have better retention when they study before sleeping. These summaries are vital for the study since they offer information related to the research question and inform the researcher and readers on what was uncovered by the study. We can look at the measures of central tendency and measures of dispersion. Central tendency refers to the mean of the data. Measures of dispersion indicate how spread out the study data are from the mean. Some of the measures would be variance, range, and standard deviation. These descriptive statistics are vital as they demonstrate the spread of the data. Variance is essential as it reflects the spread between numbers in the data set. By determining how far each number is from the mean, we can relate the numbers to each other. We can use variance to determine the probability that the students have better memory retention either from sleeping immediately after studying or sleeping 2 hours after studying.

Analytical Procedures

The nature of the study demands that we analyze each variable together with other variables or in the context of other variables. We aim to examine the relationship between the time of sleeping after studying and the students’ memory retention. We can use either the Pearson product-moment correlation or Spearman rank-order correlation. However, I find the Pearson product-moment correlation more applicable to the data analysis we want to perform. We want to evaluate whether students’ memory retention is better when they sleep immediately after studying or after two hours of studying. Therefore, we would use the Pearson product-moment correlation since it is designed to evaluate linear relationships (Humphreys et al., 2019). A relationship is linear if a change in one variable is linked with a proportional change in the other variable.

Principles and Standards

Ethical standards are maintained by ensuring the researcher respects the confidentiality and privacy of the participants and follows the informed consent rules. The research study will capture some identifiable information of the participants, and the information will not be published or shared with anyone else. The researcher aims to ensure that all identifiable information is not published and the study analysis and results do not capture any information that can identify or be linked to a study participant (Bender et al., 2020). The participants will not be asked any question that can reveal their details, and the only time they will have to submit their details is during the recruitment of the participants. When collecting survey data, the researcher will not know anything regarding the participants since they will all receive the same link via email, and no tracking will be done. The participants will not be asked for any identifiable information when providing answers, and all responses will be anonymous. The researcher has taken every precaution to ensure the participant’s privacy and confidentiality are maintained.

The consent form sent to the participants will provide information regarding the risks and benefits the participants will gain by participating in the study. We shall include information clearly stating participation is voluntary, and study participants can withdraw at any time provided they have not submitted their survey answers (Boileau et al., 2018). The researcher will be available by email to answer any potential participants’ questions and clarify anything that is not clear. The consent form will have information stating that there are risks for stress after participating in the study. The researcher will be on hand to guide and direct the participants to the SNHU counseling office. With the stated risk of increased stress, participants will be advised to seek mental health services if they feel they need to after participating in the study.

Results

The researcher expects that the study results will indicate that sleeping right after studying helps with memory retention. While there are other supporting studies showing the same, it is beneficial to confirm the results of those studies. Students who prefer to study then stay awake after studying might have lower memory retention as compared to those who sleep right after studying. The study results will add to emerging studies demonstrating the importance of sleeping after studying. It might turn out that dosing in class might not be a bad thing after all. Also, the sleep duration will matter, too, since it is recommended that students sleep for about 8 hours. Therefore, we expect the study results to indicate that the students who had a higher memory recall were the ones who slept tights after studying, and they slept for the recommended duration of 8 hours. Those who sleep for fewer hours will not have a comparable memory recall. We do not expect to have any noticeable difference between genders. Male and female students with the same study and sleep patterns will demonstrate similar memory recall. Therefore, we can confirm that gender differences do not affect memory recall.