A good night’s rest:

Grade + Gender

It would be expected that as students progress through school, the workload would getharder, and that they would loose more sleep to assessment. Similarly, one might expectthat there would be a difference between genders, with different behavioural traits andhabits.

How much are students sleeping?

AIMTo analyse how much time students in high school are receiving
enough sleep, and whether the amount of sleep they receive isaffected by technology use and grade level.

Non-tech

Tech

9107.78116.57.5126.68The above chart depicts the difference in mean sleep for people whoengaged in technology-related activities before sleeping and those whodidn’t. The observed difference is jarring, with students engaging in nontech-related activities receiving 1.1 more hours of sleep on average.

33%
49%
67%

YN

51%

Sleep by Gender andGrade1086420M

Female Opinion
on Enough Sleep
Yes
No42%
58%

Students Having
Enough Sleep
Yes
NoF
33%
67%

89101112

CONCLUSION:s11sConsidering how critical a role sleep plays in our biological function, it is alarming to see how
many of the surveyed students are not receiving enough sleep.
As predicted, keeping devices in the bedroom and the use of technology before bed had anegative impact on the amount of sleep that a given student received. As such, it is recommended
to refrain from using
Contrary to the hypothesis, however, the grade level of a student played far less of a role in theamount of sleep they received.
Perhaps most interesting of all, however, was the severe overestimation by the male population asto whether they had had the correct amount of sleep, particularly when compared with theirfemale counterparts. Perhaps this is arrogance, or maybe males simply feel the impacts of minor
sleep deprivation to a lesser degree.
Were this study were to be repeated, a more even sample between grades would be desirable; aswould sleep information across a number of nights.
If anything is to be learnt from this survey, it is that the teenage population needs to be more
conscientious of their sleep patterns, and (somewhat ironically) put more effort into sleeping:Though you may think you get your forty winks, perhaps it’s worth trying out forty one.

Hours
9Hours7

Hours

Students Receiving EnoughSleep
Personal Opinion on Sleep

Hour

Also of note is that the greater theaverage amount of sleep, the more
portable the associated device is.
This may be because people withmore permanent installations likegames consoles feel inclined to usethem extensively.

Another interestingcorrelation appears when welook at the difference between
mean and median, as in thetable to the left. The medianstays relatively constant ataround 8 hours, however it
becomes sharply negatively
skewed when the mean takes a large dip between grade in grades 11 and 12. Thismight be attributed to the increased difficulty of college, where some students areunable to maintain healthy sleep
practices.

The pie charts in the frame to the far right show the starkdifferences between males and females when it comes torating one’s own sleep against actual fact. 69% of males and
42% of females believed that they had had enough sleep, whenin actual fact, the numbers were 34% and 32% respectively

5G

amesCoTe nso
lev leisi
onpuon
eom

C

phter
Ta
blet0

Hour

2

34None

8.7

The histogram to the right depicts frequency vs. hours slept. The data
matches standard distribution,
Overall Sleep Frequency
albeit with a negative skew.
30
This skew is also evident whencomparing the mean and median,25
7.7 and 8 hours respectively. The
20
difference in the two values
15
indicates that there are more
10people receiving substantially less5sleep, pulling down the mean,
without affecting the median.
0Hour

6

Sm

9Frequency

8
Hours Slept

8Studies have found that the right amount of sleep for ateenager is approximately nine hours and fifteen minutes.
Despite this, people between the ages of 13 and 18, on average, receive
about two hours less, at seven hours and fifteen minutes⁴.
Though the sample size of this particular study is not large enough to fullyiron out any fluctuations, it demonstrates similar results to those observed
previously.
The overall average for the sample was 7.7 hours, which equates to about 30
minutes more than than the average observed in earlier studies.

198767.7

Z

Average Total Sleep byDevices in Bedroom

art
Hours Slept

Total Sleep byType of Activity

8ZZ

Overall Sleep

Med69%

The chart to the right shows the difference between males
and females across grades. It explains the previous
observation, in that female sleep rates are significantly higher
than that of males in college.

HYPOTHESISIt is predicted that the majority of students will be receiving lesssleep than the 9 hours recommended, and that higher grade levels,
due to greater technology usage as well as a greater workload, will
all have measurably lower amounts of sleep.

The usage of internet-enabled devices has increased
dramatically in the last decade, especially among theteenage demographic.
Given that existing studies have linked technology to sleep
deprivation, our empirical data should show a similarcorrelation.
The chart to the right depicts
the average amount of sleepthat each person in the survey
received in relation to thedevices that they had stored or
charging in their bedroom.
Those who had no devices
listed received the greatest
average amount of sleep —approximately 30mins more.

MeanDATA COLLECTION
An anonymous survey was distributed and filled out by 94 students
from grades 8 through 12, all on one day. In addition to age andgender, the survey asked the participants to record how long they
had slept the previous night, what they were doing before going tosleep, whether they had any devices charging in their room, andwhether they personally believed that they generally received
enough sleep. Though there was a relatively even balance between
male and female respondents, there were significantly moreparticipants year 10 and year 8. There were no outliers, save for two
trolls who were identified via absurd responses, and subsequently
removed from the analysis in order to avoid contamination of data.

TECHNOLOGY

31%

The chart to the right shows the spread of data for eachgrade. Interestingly, there is no obvious correlation
through grades, as the IQR and median both fluctuateseemingly without a pattern. Of note, however, is arelatively linear downwards trend in the bottom of therange from year 9 onwards.

Hrs Slept

BACKGROUND
From the moment you close your eyes each night, hundreds ofintricate biological processes begin to work in parallel throughout
your body and brain, not all of which are fully understood byscience.
It’s easy to forget the important role that sleep plays in each of
our lives, and this is where our problem lies:
The majority of school-aged youth fail to get enough sleep eachnight.
This is a serious problem. Dozens of studies over the years havelinked sleep deprivation to a diverse array health problems,
including obesity, heart disease and stroke¹, as well as depression
and anxiety².
Furthermore, a lack of sleep has also been found to impact
academic performance: a study performed by the Journal of Sleep
Research found that students with a sleep deficit generally
suffered lower marks at school³.
Fortunately, theories are starting to arise as to what might becontributing to this sleep loss. Among the strong correlations thathave been made, technology use is high on the list.
So, how do our students stack up?
Just how much are our students actually sleeping,
and are there any factors affecting it?

Male Opinion on
Enough Sleep
Yes
No

This is reflected in in the pie charts tothe left, which show that only 33% ofpeople surveyed received theappropriate amount of sleep. Interestingly
enough, 51% of people surveyed believedthat they were receiving enough sleep,
showing that many teens do not evenrealise that they are not receiving enoughsleep.

REFERENCES:
1: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sleep-deprivation-and-deficiency
2: https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/sleep-and-mental-health
3: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/teens-and-sleep
4: https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/specialties/sleep-disorder-center/sleep-in-adolescents