BA PLAN: Sleeping More, Stressing Less Sarah Kim

How can sleep affect stress, anxiety, and procrastination levels?  Many studies support associations between lack of sleep with stress and anxiety, and vice versa.  Positive correlations  (Lund, Reider, Whiting, & Prichard, 2010; Misra & McKean, 2000; Ross, Neibling, & Heckert, 1999; Wolfson, 2010)  Having healthy sleeping habits can promote mental well-being  (Howell, Digdon, Buro, & Sheptycki, 2008)  Relationship between procrastination levels and time preferences.  When to take care of business  When to wake up or go to bed  (Franzisco Díaz-Morales, Ferrari, & Cohen, 2002)

University Student Sleep Study  Participants:  University students years of age.  Measured:  Sleep patterns and relationship to behavior.  Results:  Low amounts of sleep are followed by symptoms of emotional disturbances  (Lund, Reider, Whiting, & Prichard, 2010)

Sl eep Quality Relates to Overall Well-being  Participants:  305 undergraduate students  Measured:  Mental health and sleeping conditions  Results:  Students with healthy sleeping habits scored higher on mental health assessments  (Howell, Digdon, Buro, & Sheptycki, 2008)

Prominent Origins of College Student Stress  Participants:  100 college students  Measured:  Student Stress Survey items  “Interpersonal”, “Intrapersonal”, “Academic” & “Environmental”  Results:  Change in sleeping patterns was the most significant source of stress  (Ross, Neibling, & Heckert, 1999)

Introducing Procrastination  Definition:  Putting off a time-sensitive action until one begins to feel unsettled  (Ferrari, 1992).  Research provided evidence for relationship between time preferences & procrastination tendencies  (Díaz-Morales, Ferrari, & Cohen, 2008)  Another study contributed that stress is identified with procrastination in students.  Stress moderates time preference and procrastination associations.  (Hess, Sherman, & Goodman, 2000)

Conclusion of Literary Research:  If poor sleeping habits correlates closest with measurements of anxiety and stress, and procrastination is a probable result of stress, then practicing better sleeping habits should also cut down on procrastination.

Hypothesis: Independent Variable  Hours slept each night Dependent Variables  Level of stress  Level of anxiety  Level of procrastination Getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night will reduce stress and anxiety levels, as well as decrease level of procrastination.

Participant:  One 20-year old female participant of mixed race  3 rd year of college  No exclusion criteria

Measures: DASS-21 Scale  Measures depression, anxiety, and stress (7 items each)  Rating scale (0-3) for each item  0 – did not apply to me at all  1 – applied to me to some degree  2 – applied to me a considerable degree  3 – applied to me most of the time  Example items:  Depression: “I couldn’t seem to experience any positive feeling at all”  Anxiety: “I was aware of dryness of my mouth”  Stress: “I felt that I was using a lot of nervous energy” Lay’s Procrastination Scale  Measures procrastination (20 items)  Rating Scale (1-5) for each item  1 – extremely uncharacteristic  2 – moderately uncharacteristic  3 – neutral  4 – moderately characteristic  5 – extremely characteristic  Example items:  Procrastinative Behavior: “I often find myself performing tasks that I had intended to do days before”  Reverse-Scored: “When it is time to get up in the morning, I most often get right out of bed”

Procedure: 1. Collect baseline data for DASS-21 and Procrastination Scale measures 2. Attempt to sleep 7 hours each night, 5 nights a week (Monday-Friday) for 6 weeks 3. Record number of hours slept the previous night, rounding to nearest whole hour 4. After trial period is over, administer both tests once more and collect post-test data.

Results  Successfully engaged in BA Plan 20 out of 30 total nights.  Mean: 4 nights/week  Min: 2 nights/week  Max: 5 nights/week  Slept total of 209 hours  Mean: 34.8 hours/week  Min: 28 hours/week  Max: 42 hours/week  Baseline Scores:  Stress: 30  Anxiety: 16  Procrastination: 80  Post-Test Scores:  Stress: 7  Anxiety: 3  Procrastination: 56

Figures A paired-samples t test would be the most appropriate method to compare baseline scores of each measure to their respective post-test scores. IV: Hours slept DV: Baseline & post-test scores for each measure Will most likely see lower means in post- test scores.

What do these results show?  There is a possibility that my hypothesis is correct.  Post-test scores of each measure turned out to be much lower than the baseline scores.  Therefore, getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night for 5 nights per week had a possible significant effect on stress, anxiety, and procrastination levels.  If follow-up research supports this finding, this means that amount of sleep each night significantly affects levels of stress, anxiety, and procrastination in human beings.

Limitations  Only one participant in the study.  Cannot perform statistical tests on data  Sample data cannot accurately represent an entire population  Possible experimenter’s bias  Participant, who was also the experimenter, had full knowledge of the current study, which brings up the possibility of biased responses to measures  Outside factors affecting ability to successfully complete BA plan every night

Suggestions for Future Research  To avoid limitations of the current study, future research should:  Recruit a much larger sample representative of a specific population (preferably adolescents or college students)  Withhold information from the participants that may cause biased responses.  Other questions to explore:  How many total nights can the behavioral activation plan be skipped and still have a significant overall effect on stress, anxiety, and procrastination levels?  Since stress and anxiety are often related to depression, and a common symptom of depression is sleep disorders, will this study have a similar effect with depression as one of the dependent variables?