HOW DOES SLEEP AFFECT WORK
PERFROMENCE?
SUBMITTED BY
…….(Afnan Athar Hussain)….
GR. No:- 6879
CLASS : XI- D
PSYCHOLOGY 2020-2021
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CERTIFICATE
Certified that this dissertation entitled “ How does sleep affect work
performance ” is a record of work done by Afnan Athar Hussain , GR.
No: 6879 , during XI Psychology course in the academic year
2020-2021
BRIGHT RIDERS SCHOOL – ABU DHABI
ANU VARGHESE
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Guide
Submitted for the examination held on
Examiners
……………………………..
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2.
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DECLARATION
I, Afnan Athar Hussain hereby declare that this project is an
authentic record of the original study carried out by me under the
guidance and supervision of Anu Varghese, Department of
Psychology, Bright riders school, Abu Dhabi and that no part of the
project report has been presented earlier for any course in any of
institutions.
Name of the student : Afnan Athar Hussain
GR. No: 6879
XI PSYCHOLOGY 2020-2021
Date :
Place :
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study required the efforts of many people.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my profound
gratitude and deep regards to my teacher Mrs Anu Varghese for her
guidance and encouragement throughout the project. The help and
guidance given by her from time to time have been of great help in
the completion of this project. I express my sincere thanks to all the
teachers and students of various Schools who provided the
necessary data for my study.
I also take this opportunity to thank our principal Dr Rishikesh
Pdegonkar, for his cordial support and guidance
Lastly, I would like to thank the almighty, my parents and my
friends for their constant encouragement and support without which
this assignment would not be possible a
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CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Need and Significance of the study
1.3 Statement of the problem
1.4 Objectives
1.5 Hypotheses
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 Sample
2.2 Measures
2.3 Procedure
2.4 Analysis
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
4.1 Summary and Conclusion
4.2 Limitations of the study
4.3 Scope for future study
4.4 Implications and Suggestions
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
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1.INTRODUCTION
In this topic sleep is the independent variable and work performance is
the dependent variable.
Sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind and body, sleep is an
essential part of your daily routine, you spend about one-third of your
life sleeping. Without sleep you can’t form or maintain pathways in your
brain which help to create new memories and let you learn, it is harder to
concentrate and function properly without efficient sleep. Sleep is vital
to several brain functions. When you go to sleep, your immune system
produces protective, disease-fighting substances like antibodies and
cytokines. It uses these substances to overpower foreign substances such
as bacteria and viruses. Certain cytokines such as interleukin which
normally increases at night and induce fatigue which also helps you to
sleep, giving your immune system more organization to defend your
body against diseases. The lack of sleep is another risk factor for
becoming overweight and obese. Sleep influences the levels of two other
hormones, leptin and ghrelin, these are the hormones which control the
feelings of hunger and fullness. not getting enough sleep disrupts the
production of these hormones it might increase or decrease their
production. Enough sleep helps remove toxins from your brain which
are built up while you are awake. On average to maintain a healthy life
we should get at least 7-8hrs of sleep. The sleep requirements for
different ages are given below.
● Newborns require at least 11-19 hrs of sleep
● 1-5 yrs old require at least 11-14hrs of sleep
● 5-13 yrs old require at least 9-11 hrs of sleep
● 14-17 yrs old (adolescents) require at least 7-9 hrs of sleep
● 17-25 yrs old (young adults ) require at least 7-9 hrs of sleep
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● 25-60 yrs old (adults) require at least 7-8 hrs of sleep
Source: National Sleep Foundation
Everybody needs sleep, it affects almost every part of our body from our
brain, lungs, bodily functions to the prevention of diseases. While
sleeping, pathways are formed between nerve cells (neurons) in your
brain that help you remember new information you’ve learned that day.
Lack of sleep leaves your brain fatigued, which reduces your efficiency
to perform certain activities. Good quality of sleep is essential for good
health and well-being, but due to the significant change in lifestyle and
society sleeping is getting difficult
WHO’s sleep research says that sleep deprivation can be hazardous to
our mind and body. Some of the main side effects of sleep deprivation
include physical effects like fatigue, hypertension cognitive impairment
lack of attention, failure of performance, attention, and motivation.
Several structures in the brain are committed to sleep.The hypothalamus
is really a peanut-sized structure deep inside the brain that contains
groups of nerve cells that act as a central controller for sleep and
anxiety.
.The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is a cluster of thousands of cells in
the hypothalamus that gathers light exposure information directly from
the eyes and influences your sleeping patterns and psychological
rhythm.The brain stem, which is situated at the base of the brain,
interacts with the hypothalamus to regulate wake and sleep changes.
GABA is a neurotransmitter found in the brain.GABA is a brain
chemical released by sleep-promoting cells in the hypothalamus and
brain stem that acts to reduce the activation of arousal receptors in the
hypothalamus and brain stem.. The brain stem including the pons and
medulla also play a special role in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep; it
sends signals for the muscles to relax which is important for body
posture and limb movements in order to stop acting out our dreams.. The
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pineal gland, which is located between the two hemispheres of the
brain, receives signals from the SCN and increases the production of the
hormone melatonin, which helps feel tired and puts you to sleep when its
time.
According to research conducted by the 2008 National Sleep
Foundation in America chronic sleep deprivation is common among
workers, the more time an individual spends working the less sleep they
get. Sleep deprivation has been associated with negative work outcomes
including absenteeism and occupational hazards.Sleep deprivation
negatively affects work performance—productivity and quality—and
working relationships. Employees who don't get enough sleep have a
tougher time focusing, understanding, and communicating. A recent
study conducted by the centre for disease control and prevention (CDC)
shows that between 1985 and 2015 the average sleep a person gets In a
24-hour cycle, is fewer than 6 hours. Nowadays sleep deprivation does
not only affects adults but is also a significant concern for adolescents
(from age 14) and college students who skip the needed amount of sleep
to finish assignments and submit their work before the required deadline
another cause for this is and also the increased use of caffeine.
Stimulants, such as coffee, energy drinks, sugar etc aren’t enough to
override your body’s overpowering need for sleep.Indeed, these can
intensify sleep deprivation by making it more difficult to fall asleep at
night. This, in turn, may lead to a cycle of nighttime insomnia followed
by daytime caffeine consumption addiction to resist the tiredness caused
by the lost hours of shut-eye. Sleep deprivation also negatively affects
your ability to do mental processes and pay attention to your emotional
state. Individuals may feel more impatient or prone to mood swings. It
can also compromise decision-making processes and creativity. which
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affects their sleeping pattern drastically, sleep deprivation lowers grades
and increases academic failure.
Some of the preventions and treatments for sleep deprivation are: The
best way to prevent sleep deprivation is to make sure you get sufficient
sleep. Some of the other ways to prevent sleep
➔ avoiding caffeine past noon or at least a few hours before your
bedtime
➔ Going to bed and waking up at the same time every night and
maintaining to your bedtime routine on weekends and holidays.
➔ Continuing your daily routine on weekends and holidays, keep to
the bedtime routine.
➔ devote an hour before bed doing soothing activities, such as
reading, meditating, or taking a bath
➔ avoiding heavy meals a few hours before your bedtime
➔ Steer clear from using electronic devices right before bed’
➔ If you hold a sleep journal for one or two weeks, you'll be able to
spot habits or symptoms that are keeping you from having
adequate rest. When you plan to see a psychiatrist or a sleep
disorder specialist, the diary will also help you express exactly
what's going on in your sleep.
Doing activities without sleep is like driving a car with no gas in it. The
amount of sleep an average person nowadays is way below six hours.
Students and adults pull all-nighters at least once a week to complete
their assignments on time. They don’t pay attention to what’s going on
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around them and just try to get through the day. One of the main factors
leading to the unhealthy balance between sleep and work is our
electronic devices we use them constantly for work, school, watching
movies, talking with our friends. The blue light from the devices strain
your eyes and keep you up at night. Procrastination and addicting
features of the internet (youtube, Netflix etc) also contribute greatly to
the unhealthy sleeping patterns developed by individuals. An average
human being spends about 2months in a year staring at our electronic
devices. We must learn how to not delay our work and complete them
on time without sacrificing what is most precious to us that is sleep.
Another important factor is the early start of school and workplaces
which usually start at 7 in the morning. The human brain can only
function and retain information after 10 am according to researches done
by psychologists. Therefore when schools and offices start early and end
late people don’t have enough time to complete their work, continuous
work and assignments keep piling up and at the end, they will have to
pull an all-nighter. No one likes a student who is lagging or an employee
who is not efficient. Sleeping and work performance co-relate in our day
to day life more than we think.
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1.2 NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study is very important as almost every working and studying
individual faces sleep deprivation. Sleep is something that everyone
experiences. Even though it is the most important aspect of our life it is
usually not taken seriously. Adolescent children face many new
challenges when they enter the adult world, workload increases as they
move from one grade to another. As competition is increasing everyone
wants to come first no one will accept the second place, the teachers or
their peers expect them to be the best and first in everything, They are
expected to finish their work in a given amount of time without any
help. Students turn to caffeine or other drugs which help them stay
awake to complete their work. This study of sleep and work
performance is important because it helps educate students and even
adults on the need and significance of sleep. Many people might not
notice how sleep deprivation changes their mood and behaviour, they
might not even notice that they are not getting the required 7 hours of
sleep. Educating and guiding the students will help them change their
sleeping patterns and guide them to a better and easy life, it will make
them realize how important sleep is. Educating and helping adults will
improve their work performance and general behaviour. Sleep
deprivation not only affects them but everyone around them also
experiences its side effects. Educating individuals on this topic can also
help prevent a lot of life-threatening diseases like heart attack, insomnia,
etc it can also help prevent mental diseases like depression, anxiety,
ADHD etc.
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1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This study has been attempted to explore sleep and sleep deprivation and
how it affects various work performances in adolescent kids and adults.
1.4 OBJECTIVES
1. To find out whether there is any significant relationship between
sleep and work performance
2. To find out whether sleep deprivation affects adolescent kids
3. To find out whether sleep deprivation affects working adults
1.5 HYPOTHESIS
● Sleep deprivation or lack of sleep always has a negative effect on
students and adult work performance
● It reduces concentration and the ability to attain new information
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2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 Sample
The sample which was selected for the study consisted of 40
Adolescents from various schools in U.A.E. There were 20 male and 20
female students. They belong to the age group of 12-18 years. It had
equal gender representations and students from different socio economic
backgrounds, residential areas and also different semesters were
included in the study.
2.2 Measurements
Only questionnaire measures were used in the study. The Eysenck
Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) is a questionnaire to assess the
personality traits of a person. Hans Jürgen Eysenck and Sybil B.
Eysenck, both psychologists, developed it.
2.2.1 scoring : The ‘lie score’ is out of 9. It measures how socially
desirable you are trying to be in your answers.The ‘E SCORE’ is out of
35 and, measures how much of an extrovert you are. The ‘N SCORE’ is
out of 35 and measure how neurotic you are. Your E and N ratings are
plotted on a graph from which you can read the personality traits to
analyze the data. The closest you get to the circle's end, the better.
2.2.2 Scale: If the extroversion score is 22 and above the participant(s) is
extroverted.
If the extroversion score is 13 and below the participant is introverted
2.2.3 Personal Data Sheet
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Personal data sheet was used to collect personal details like age, year of
study, order of birth, socio economic status, current place of stay along
with marks of previous examination.
2.3 Procedure
There were 20 females and 20 males used for this study. The
questionnaire was sent to each of the persons. The questionnaires and
the personal data sheet were tied together. The participants were assured
of the confidentiality and anonymity of the information provided by
them. After obtaining informed consent, the questionnaires were
distributed and the participants were asked to fill in the personal
particulars. Then they were asked to read the instructions printed clearly
on the test booklet and were requested to give his/her response to each
statements in the response sheet. Doubts, if any, were clarified. The
participants are given enough time to complete the test and the
questionnaires are collected back upon the completion of the test. They
were informed that there is no right or wrong answers and they were also
asked to respond as truthfully as they can.
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3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
RESULTS:
These are the following results from the Eysenck personality test (EPQ)
conducting to test whether sleeping patterns affect work performance. 20
females and 20 males were given the questionnaire. the colour blue
represents YES and the colour orange represents NO and green
represents not applicable Some of the questions that were asked are:
1. Do you get less than 8 hours of sleep?
As you can see from the graph out of
40 people 29 of them do not get the
required amount of sleep. 69% of
them get less than 8 hours of the
required healthy sleep
2.Do get the same amount of sleep every day?
Out of 40 people, only 7 that is
17% of them only have a fixed
sleep schedule the rest of them
that is 79% do not have a fixed
sleeping schedule and don’t get
the same amount of sleep
every day.
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3. Do you find yourself dozing off while reading a book, watching tv etc.
Out of 40, 20 of them can’t seem to
concentrate while doing a task and
seem to doze off. This is one of the
effects of sleep deprivation as
mentioned earlier where people
who don’t get enough sleep can
perform activities properly.
A similar question was asked
Do you feel sleepy in the daytime while working/studying?
People seem to doze off more when doing
important work like working or studying.
This can affect the jobs they do or their studies.
Which is not good.
3. Does the amount of sleep you get affect how you act throughout the
day?
Not getting enough sleep daily leads to
irregular moods and shift in work
patterns. Almost 74% of people’s mood
gets affected by the amount of sleep
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they are getting. These mood changes negatively affect work
performances. Performing and memorizing activities become a
difficulty. They won't be able to concentrate on what they are doing
properly
4.Do you spend more than 6hours in front of the screen.
Almost 90% of them spend more than 6 hours in
front of a screen but that is understandable since
everything is online now due to the pandemic.
5. Do you take sleeping pills to fall asleep?
Almost 90% of individuals do not take
any medication to fall asleep. Only 10%
of the population uses sleeping pills to
fall asleep.
6.Do you often sacrifice your sleep to get work done/ meet deadlines?
Due to excess and continuous
workload from school and
workplaces, 81% of the population
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has to sacrifice their sleep to complete the given work on time. As
mentioned above this is becoming a serious problem where people care
more about meeting deadlines than getting a healthy amount of sleep.
Only 20% doesn’t sacrifice their sleep.
7. Do you have a family history of sleep disorders?
As you can see only 17% of the population
has a history of sleep disorders like
insomnia, sleep apnea etc in their family,
this can give an explanation or an excuse as
to why these specific people may have
sleeping problems. But for the rest that is
83% of the population sleeping problems
developed as they grew.
8. Do you drink coffee, tea, energy drinks etc. to stay awake?
23 out of 40 people use supplements like
coffee, energy drinks etc to stay awake
during the day as they don’t get enough
sleep at night. too much caffeine
consumption is not good for the body
and can become addicting
9. Do you tend to sleep more on non-working days?
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People tend to sleep more on non-working
days as they need to catch up on the sleep
they have missed that week. Only 30% of
the population stick to their regular
schedule even on non-working days.
DISCUSSION:
As seen in the results almost everyone suffers from sleeplessness. Lack
of sleep has had a negative impact on everyone’s work/ daily
performances, as hypothesized. It reduced the population’s
concentration and ability to do work properly. They doze off while
working or studying or even while doing simple activities like reading a
book or watching tv. Many studies have been done on sleep and how it
affects work performances and all of them can come to one conclusion
that sleep deprivation or lack of sleep does not improve your work
performances. This research could easily be done as this is something
everyone may experience, no matter what their age or gender is. To
avoid this unhealthy behaviour people must learn to take sleep seriously
and practice how to get proper sleep. This can be done in a number of
ways like not procrastinating, not using electronics before bed etc. for
future researches it would be helpful to reach a larger audience to gather
a more accurate result.
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SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Lack of sleep affects almost every part of our body from our brain,
lungs, bodily functions to the prevention of diseases. On average to
maintain a healthy life we should get at least 7-8hrs of sleep. Lack
of sleep leaves your brain fatigued, which reduces your efficiency to
perform certain activities. The lack of sleep is another risk factor for
becoming overweight and obese. Good quality sleep is essential for
good health and well-being, but due to the significant change in
lifestyle and society sleeping is getting difficult. WHO's sleep
research says that sleep deprivation can be hazardous to our mind
and body. Some of the main side effects of sleep deprivation are:
depression, anxiety, depression, weight gain, weight loss, and
weight gain from excessive consumption of alcohol and drugs
Major findings of the present study are as follows:Sleep deprivation has
a negative affect on workplaces
● Sleep deprivation is common and everyone suffers from it
● Sleep plays an important role in our life
LIMITATIONS
● The sample size was small (N=40). So the results cannot be
generalized.
● More students from different years should have been
included
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● Face to Face interviews would have been more helpful to
asses the behaviour
● Different countries and states should have also been included.
SCOPE FOR FUTURE STUDY
● The study can be replicated in a larger sample including more
variables.
● The study can be conducted by taking current and continuous
academic performance.
● The study can be conducted taking the younger generation in
account (8-13 yrs old)
● Sleep deprivation is now becoming a common disorder. A more
diverse population of age groups can be taken
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