Title: The Impact of Time Management on Sleep Deprivation

Authors: Diane DeLosSantos, Adan Khan, Ifeoluwa Tugbobo

 

Abstract

Without sleep, physical and emotional health are at risk. This study investigated on how poor time management may lead to an increase in the poor sleep habits and sleep deprivation of college students at the City College of New York(CCNY). According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, college students aged 18-25 years old are supposed to get seven to nine hours of sleep each day. If a college student does not know how to properly manage their time, then he or she will experience more sleep deprivation compared to an efficient, non-procrastinating student. Using an online survey via Google Forms, volunteers were asked to disclose their age, gender and sleeping habits on busy/non-busy days. This investigation showed the typical amount of sleep that college students may get each night is about 5-6 hours and most of the respondents reported poor time management skills occasionally.. In summation, poor sleep habits may lead to poor time management skills and  may negatively influence academic achievement.

Introduction

Sleep is an intricate,recurring process involving consciousness, sensory activity, inhibition of specific muscles, and reduced environmental interaction. Extensive periods of sleep, like water or nutrients, are an essential part of human life; it is a necessity because the body needs to restore, replenish, proliferate, repair and synthesize. It’s important to note that sleep deprivation, where one fails to get sufficient rest, is a chronic state that impact budy function and mind plasticity. Lack of appropriate amounts of sleep can cause fatigue, weight gain, weight loss, reduced cognitive function, affected performance in school/work/life and time management.

Time management is process of organizing, planning, and designating the time and willpower for specific activities. Quality time management skills indicate that one can get more done in less time, especially when there is limited time and high pressure situation. However, with poor sleeping habits, time management skills and academic performance can be negatively impacted (Mei-Yen, Wang & Yi-Jeong, 2006). Based on previous research, the amount of sleep that adolescents, teenagers and young adults may get is indicative of their well-being and whether they can effectively manage their time. In  a study that inquired about the link between procrastination and insomnia symptoms, evidence showed that increasing procrastination may lead to poor academic habits, negative attitude, increased emotional strain, and stress(Harrison & Shpitalni, 2016).

Materials and Methods

      22 male participate in the survey and 54 female participate as well in the survey. There was 1 Nonbinary who also  participate in the survey. This survey was only for City College students. In the survey there was 11 questions that we came up with related to the topic for the survey. The first question we asked was what is their gender second question was how old are they. Also, the questions was  based on Sleep Deprivation & Time Management. So the first question about sleep was how much sleep did they get last night there are more questions related to sleep. Another question was how many hours of sleep do they get normally. There is another question about sleep which is how many hours of sleep do they usually get in a busy week (a lot of assignments/tests) on average per day. Moreover, how would they  describe their time management skills and how often do they submit assignments or study for tests early. In addition, how often do they submit assignments or study for tests late. Another question about assignment is have they submitted assignments late or right before it was due in the last semester and are they usually rushing to study or finish homework. And the question is do they usually stay up late to finish work. Overall, 77 people responded to the survey.

 

Results                       

This graph depicts a visual representation of females being more likely to procrastinate than men therefore leading females to have less sleep than males.

 

If you’re 18-20 years old, you probably go to school and/or work which means that you’re less likely to catch a full eight hours of sleep unlike people younger or older than you.

  The highest sleep people got last night  was 6 hours and the second highest sleep they got was 7 hours. The third highest was 8 hours.  Some people were able to get a sleep for 9 to 10 hours and some were only able to sleep 4 hours last night.

The highest sleep people normally  get is in between 5 to 6 hours. The second highest sleep normally get is 7 hours. 13% normally get to sleep for 8 hours. Very less like 3% get to sleep 9 or more than 9 hours. There are very  few people who normally get to sleep less than 5 hours.

Doing the busy week 22% of people  usually get 6 hours of sleep which is not bad. Also, 18% only get to sleep for 2 to 4 hour sleep which is not good. Moreover, in a busy week 5 to 7%   get to sleep for 3 to 5 hours and very few like 7% get to sleep for 7 to 8 hours a sleep in a busy week.

 

    The highest time management skills was 50.6%which is  intermediate. The second highest is 23.4% which is good that they can manage time. Only 15.6% are not able to manage time and 10.4% are excellent with their time manage.

Only 9.1% students always and never submit their assignment or study for test early. 35.1% students often submit their assignment or study for test early. 22.1% students sometimes submit their assignment or study for test early. 24.7% students  rarely submit their assignment or study for test early.

    33.8% students rarely submit their assignment or study for test late. 29.9% students never submit their assignment or study for test late and 19.5% students sometimes submit their assignment or study for test late. Also, 11.7% students often submit their assignment or study for test late. And 5% students always submit their assignment or study for test late.

66.2% of students did submitted their assignment late or right before it was due in the last semester. 24.7% of students did not  submitted their assignment late or right before it was due in the last semester. Only 9.1% of students maybe submitted their assignment late or right before it was due in the last semester.

Sometimes 53.2% of students are  usually rushing to study or finish homework. 37.7% of students are always usually rushing to study or finish homework and 9.1% of students are never usually rushing to study or finish homework.

 

41.6% students are always usually up to finish their work. 49.4% students are sometimes usually up to finish work and 9.1% students are never usually up to finish  work.

 

Discussion

The results seem to support our hypothesis, which states if a college student does not know how to properly manage their time, then he or she will experience more sleep deprivation compared to an efficient, non-procrastinating student.

The results showed that more than half of the college students who participated in the study experienced a decrease in the number of hours of sleep they typically receive daily, during a busy week, in which there are a lot of assignments due and/or exams to study for. Of these students who experienced slept less during a busy week, the majority of them believe that they have intermediate time management skills that could be improved. Also, the majority of these students rarely submitted assignments late or began studying for exams late. However, the majority of these students did submit an assignment(s) late or right before it was due, last semester. Moreover, while the majority of these students sometimes rushed to finish their work or study for an exam, a good amount of these students always rushed to finish their work or study for an exam. The difference was only a few students.  Lastly, while the majority of these students sometimes stayed up late to finish their work, a good amount of these students always stayed up late to finish their work. The difference was only a few students.

According to the results,  the majority of the college students that participated in the study are sleep-deprived. The majority of these students receive less than the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep for their age range daily. The results also imply that time management skills are key during a busy week of school, in which there are multiple assignments due and/or multiple exams. The results also imply that lack of time management skills can cause college students to sleep less than they normally would because it causes them to rush to finish their work/study for an exam, and/or stay up late to finish their work. In fact, a study investigating the relationship of university students’ sleep habits and academic motivation stated that college students nowadays are sleeping less than before. Also, it found that 42% of the students who participated in the study experienced excessive daytime sleepiness and these students were more likely to procrastinate than those students who didn’t experience excessive daytime sleepiness.

There were several limitations of our study. One limitation was that our results can’t be used to generalize to other populations of college students. First of all, we had a disproportionate number of male and female college students participate in our survey. In fact, a lot more female college students participated in the study than male college students. Second of all, a majority of the college students we reached out to fill out the survey were enrolled in the Sophie Davis Biomedical Education Program. Third of all, a majority of the college students that participated in the study were between 18-21 years of age, so we weren’t able to account for older college students. It seems as if mostly first-year, second-year, and third-year college students participated in our survey, which once again wouldn’t allow us to account for upper-year college students.  A second limitation have to do with outside factors which could affect the amount of sleep college student receive, such as family troubles, financial problems, stress/anxiety, and state of health. A third limitation has to do with the survey question “How many hours of sleep do you usually get in a busy week (a lot of assignments/tests) on average per day?”. Many participants answered with a range of hours, which made it a little difficult to group the data together. My group and I should’ve specifically mentioned to use whole numbers and not use ranges. A fourth limitation is that all the data collected was self-reported, which means that there’s the possibility that people didn’t recall information correctly, weren’t completely honest, or withheld information.

Further research needs to be conducted to determine if there is a strong association between sleep deprivation and time management skills, as well as sleep deprivation and procrastination. In future experiments/studies, it is recommended that the results be adjusted for compounding variables, such as relationship troubles, family troubles, financial problems, stress, anxiety, and state of health. It is also recommended for future experiments/studies that paper surveys or face-to-face interviews be conducted to ensure that equal amounts of college students are obtained, gender-wise and school-year-wise.

References

Edens KM. 2006. The Relationship of University Students Sleep Habits and Academic Motivation. NASPA Journal 43:432–445.

Mei-Yen Chen, Wang, E. K., & Yi-Jong Jeng, 1. (2006). Adequate sleep among adolescents is positively associated with health status and health-related behaviors. BMC Public Health, 6(1), 59–8. https://doi-org.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/10.1186/1471-2458-6-59