Comparison Of Sleep Deprivation Between Science And Non-science Majors at the UNG, Cumming Campus Courtney Cox, Britni Howard, Trevor McPherson and Melba Horton University of North Georgia, Cumming Campus

Abstract Sleep is an essential component of health that affects the wellbeing and individual’s quality of life. Previous study has documented that college students, mostly women, have more sleep disturbance than men (Buboltz et al. 2001). At the University of North Georgia, Cumming campus college students are taking science or non-science courses for their major field of study. This study investigates whether being science- or non-science major affects the amount of sleep the students have. The null hypothesis is that science- or non-science majors have no significant difference in their amount of sleep time. A survey was conducted separately to 15 students that declared either science- or non-science majors. Results showed that employed non-science majors have more sleep (~ 7 hours) compared to science majors (~ 5 hours). However, the unemployed non- science majors have ~8 hours of sleep while the science majors have ~ 6 hours. This indicates that whether students are employed or not, non-science majors generally get more sleep than the science majors. This tied to the impression provided by the students in the survey implying that 58% of the science majors believed that the amount of sleep affected their academic performance whereas 42% of the non-science believed otherwise. Considering that sleep is a very big factor on individual’s quality of life, students’ sleep deprivation need to be addressed to make the students at the University of North Georgia in the Cumming campus be more academically equipped and with good time management.

Introduction It has been reported that sleep is an essential component of health that affects the wellbeing and individual’s quality of life (Jensen and Herr, 1993). Previous study has documented that college students, mostly women, have more sleep disturbance than men (Buboltz et al. 2001). At the University of North Georgia, Cumming campus college students are taking science or non-science courses for their major field of study. In addition, most of these students are concurrently working while in school. This study investigates whether being science- or non-science major affects the amount of sleep the students have. The null hypothesis is that science- or non-science majors have no significant difference in their amount of sleep time.

Method A survey was conducted separately to 15 students that declared either science- or non- science majors. Questions in the survey are indicated below. The data was recorded and analyzed in Excel worksheet. The difference between the number of responses was determined using T-test.

Results As shown in Figure 1, the effect of a science and non-science major has on a college student’s sleep. If a college student is employed and unemployed played a role in the amount of hours a college student gets each night. The graph clearly shows that college students that are science majors get less sleep than if they are a non-science majors. The students that are employed and are science majors get the least amount of sleep overall. As shown in Figure 2, the percentage off college student that claim their amount of sleep affects their academic performance. The sample was taken out of 30 college students at the Cumming campus of The University of North Georgia. There are 58% of college students that are achieving a science major, and claim that their amount of sleep affects their academic performance. There are 42% of Non- science majors that claim their academic performance is affected by the amount of sleep they get. The pie chart shows that the majority of college students that think their sleep affects their academic performance were non-science majors

Hours of Sleep Figure 1: Effect of a science and non-science major has on a college student’s sleep. If a college student is employed and unemployed played a role in the amount of hours a college student gets each night. The graph clearly shows that college students that are science majors get less sleep than if they are a non-science majors. The students that are employed and are science majors get the least amount of sleep overall.

Figure 2: The percentage off college student that claim their amount of sleep affects their academic performance. The sample was taken out of 30 college students at the Cumming campus of The University of North Georgia. There are 58% of college students that are achieving a science major, and claim that their amount of sleep affects their academic performance. There are 42% of Non-science majors that claim their academic performance is affected by the amount of sleep they get. The pie chart shows that the majority of college students that think their sleep affects their academic performance were non- science majors

Discussion In a previous experiment, students at North Carolina State University hypothesized that students who had a math related major received less sleep compared to students who had a social science related major. Their data showed that all majors resulted in less amount of sleep thus proving their hypothesis to be false. Our experiment differentiated from the North Carolina State University study, because we used science and non-science majors. Science vs. non-science majors covers a larger amount of college student, which in the end gave us more data and better results. We predicted that if a college student is a science major, then they will get less hours of sleep each night. Based on the data that we collected, our prediction has been proven to be true, which is what we expected to happen. However, we didn’t expect the amount of sleep to be so close between the two majors. The hypothesis for our experiment was, science majors who have a job on average get less hours of sleep each night, compared to non-science majors who have a job and students that feel that the amount of sleep they get affects their academic performance. The null hypothesis is that the major has no affect on a college student’s sleep. The alternative hypothesis is that a science major has an affect on college student’s sleep. A science major played a significant role on college student’s sleep each night. The null hypothesis was rejected because the major does have an affect on college student’s sleep. We had a low P value because our sample provided enough evidence and we were able to reject the null hypothesis. Our results have proven that college students who are achieving a science major are estimated on average to get less sleep at night, than college students who are achieving a non-science major. If we were able to improve our experiment, then we would pick a larger sample size. A larger sample size would help to display the data more clearly. We have concluded that most college students do obtain a job, and having a job doesn’t play a big role in the amount of sleep a student get each night. The main factor that affects a college student’s sleep is their major, and whether is it a science or non-science major. Science majors get less sleep over all whether they have a job or not.

Citations Buboltz Jr, W. C., Brown, F., & Soper, B. (2001). Sleep Habits and Patterns of College Students: A Preliminary Study. Journal Of American College Health, 50(3), 131. Jensen D. P., Herr K. A. (1993) Sleeplessness: advances in clinical nursing research. Nursing Clinics of North America. 28(2),