Research Proposal

Muma Khan
Independent Research G/T
2105-2016
Title: Can Sleepyheads Be Brainiacs?
Introduction and Overview of Research:
The general area of investigation in the project is to determine if sleep deprivation in high school
students is declining their grades. If it is, finding the solution is definitely important. There are
many suggested solutions, but the focus of this project is to see how homework factors into how
much sleep students are getting and whether homework levels should be reduced in order to help
students get the sleep that they need. This project revolves around what the students takes are on
the issue of homework and whether or not they believe reducing homework is the best solution to
increasing the amount of sleep they get compared to the other suggested solutions.
Background and Rationale
Many high school students are sleep deprived. Research shows the causes for this are
many, including staying up late doing homework, playing video games, etc. For whatever reason
it is that they are staying awake, they lose the sleep that they need. Pediatricians recommend that
adolescents get at least 8-9 hours of sleep, but only 15 percent of high school students are only
getting 8.5 hours of sleep or more (Carpenter 42). Many studies show that not getting enough
sleep may be hurting the overall grades of students. One study shows PET scans of one brain
after total sleep deprivation, and another brain after a night of normal sleep, and compares them
(Walker, M.P., R. Stickgold, D. Alsop, N. Gaab, and G. Schlaug 911-917). It is shown that the
brains cognitive area is a lot less alert after total sleep deprivation. This shows that its hard for
students to focus when they dont get enough sleep, and so their skills to absorb and take in new
information during classes will be limited, eventually causing their overall grade to be lower.
There are many different suggestions to solve this problem. They include limiting
technology, reducing excessive homework amounts, and even shifting school start times an hour
to a half an hour later. The most argued issue today is that pediatricians are recommending to
shift school start times to no earlier than 8 30 a.m. However, many schools still havent done this
yet because they feel it's impractical because of obstacles like bus schedules and the high
expenses associated with doing so (Richter "Among Teens, Sleep Deprivation an Epidemic").
Also, it would interfere with students schedules and extracurricular activities for which they
have set schedules they already are used to.
This study of whether sleep affects a high school students cognitive ability is significant
because it relates to a huge population of high school students. Many high school students are
sleep deprived today, and finding a solution to this problem is highly necessary, especially if it is
hurting their grades. Finding a solution to this problem that would be convenient for high school
students across the country will not only help students get more sleep, but it will also help them
prevent their grades from declining. Also, if homework does happen to factor into why students
arent receiving the amount of sleep they need to achieve good grades in school, then methods to
to reduce excess homework can be found to help students grades as well.

Research Methodology:
Research Question: Does the amount of sleep a student gets affect their cognitive performance?
If so, how does homework levels factor into fixing this problem of sleep deprivation in high
school students?
Research Hypothesis: The less sleep a student gets, the harder it will be for them to focus during
school, causing their overall academic performance to decline. The extended hypothesis is that
excessive homework is one of the main problems students are facing that is causing them to be
sleep deprived. Many students are sleep deprived due to excessive amounts of homework, and
reducing it to 10 minutes of homework multiplied by the number of the grade the student is in,
for example 10 minutes of homework for a 1st grader, 20 for a second grader, and so on (Kalish
"Parents Should Take Action Against Excessive Homework"). This is recommended because too
much homework causes students to sleep later. It also causes extra stress and anxiety in students,
hurting their emotional stability to focus in school (Hancock"Do Kids Have Too Much
Homework?").
Research Design Model: The research design is descriptive research that includes mostly
qualitative research, however it does include some quantitative as well. After doing research and
finding that many studies have shown and proven that less sleep negatively affects a students
overall academic performance, finding out which method to fixing sleep deprivation in students
is important. The variables in this project include amount of sleep a student gets, their grades,
and the amount of homework they receive each night for school.
Data Collection: Surveys/Questionnaires would be the best source of data collection for this
project. We could use surveys to get the opinions of students on whether or not they believe that
homework should be reduced, and that it is one of the many reasons they are losing sleep. They
also could answer questions related to how much sleep they usually get and what their overall
grades are. Data will be collected from high school students at Mt. Hebron High School. The
originality of this particular project lies in it going the further step to discover what the students
prefer regarding how to fix sleep deprivation, and what they think needs to be done in order to
fix this issue.
Product Objectives:
The primary research can be displayed in a journal article discussing the results of the survey,
and what the students themselves believe should happen in order to fix the problem of sleep
deprivation in high school students. It can even be taken a step further if majority of the results
point towards students promoting less homework, where a petition can be made and taken to
authorities in the building to ask their permission for reducing excessive homework. The product
will inform the general audience of people who have been heatedly debating over how to solve
this problem of sleep deprivation in teens. It will be put up on a blog or website to inform those
people on this issue. It can also be beneficial to those schools that find it too difficult to shift
school start times, as they can use reducing homework amounts as an alternative to that solution.
The target audience to whom the oral presentation will be given to teachers of Mount Hebron
High School to ask them to consider reducing excess amounts of homework.
Logistic Considerations:

The project would need both humans and a computer in order to type up the journal article and in
order to understand what the students believe is the best solution tothe problem. Also, for the
petition, human signatures are needed by the students and human consent is needed by
authorities to determine whether or not they would like to put the plan in action. Permission is
also needed to create the petition in the first place.
Timeline- In third quarter, a timeline will be added that outlines the data collection, product
development, and audience distribution.
Timeline:
For my project, I am proposing that the best alternative solution to shifting to later school
start times to achieve less sleep deprivation in high school students is reducing excess
homework. The form of data collection I chose was both meta- analysis of previous studies and
Im also conducting my own surveys asking students questions about what they believe/ prefer
would be the best solution to their sleep deprivation. I hope to give an oral presentation that
includes my final product which will be a petition I create that calls for reduction of excess
homework. It will also includes a display of both my research and my results to the surveys on
my display board and will basically ask teachers to consider reducing excess homework and will
define excess homework.
Date

Item to be
Completed

Further Elaboration

3/10/16

Have Brainstormed
Survey Questions
ready

Brainstorm about 10-20

questions for survey to pick out
later with Dr. Kiehl which would
be best

3/10/16

Have 2 articles ready

for meta-analysis

Research and find 2 articles that

back up my argument for data
collection

3/10/16

Conference with
Dr.Kiehl

Talk to Dr. Kiehl about data

collection and also see if she has
any suggestions and can help to
choose between survey questions

3/12/16

Display Board
Sketch

I would like to complete a rough

sketch of what my display board
will look like.

3/12/16

Finalize my Survey
Questions

By this day, I would like to have

reduced the number of survey
questions I initially had to a
compact amount of questions
that are enough for me to collect

Completed?

the data I need.

3/12/16

Finalize Survey
Questions with the
School

Coordinate with school

authorities and teachers and ask
for their approval to send out the
surveys, giving them plenty of
time to get back to me (about a
week), and I have a backup
amount of time of about a few
extra days if they still dont get
back to me.

3/13/16

Make Survey Copies, On this date, I have to figure out

Organize, and Label
how many copies I need to make
them
of the surveys and where Im
going to send them out. I will
also send instruction sheets on
how to get them back to me.

3/14/16

Distribute Surveys

I want to actually start sending

the surveys out by this day,
giving me about 2 weeks before
spring break to collect them.

3/24/16

Receive Surveys

This is the last day before spring

break and by this point so that I
can evaluate them over spring
break.

Spring Break

Meta- Analysis

I would like to finish my metaanalysis of my 2 articles and

collect that data over spring
break.

Spring Break

Analyze Data From

Surveys

Put all the data from my surveys

into excel and collect
observations and results from the
graphs I create with the data.

Spring Break

Start Sketching out

Final Product

Start working on my final

product and putting together
ways it can be eye- catching
towards my intended audience

Spring Break

Start working on
board

Start typing out the information

I plan to put on the display board
and editing it to make it

presentable
4/4/16

Putting together
petition

With help from Dr. Kiehl I

would like to put together my
petition starting this day.

4/8/16

Finish making
Petition

By this date, I would like to have

finished making my petition

4/12/16

Get Permission for

Petition

By this date, I would like to have

already asked for permission for
having people sign my petition,
allowing authorities to have a
week to get back to me.

4/16/16

Begin putting
together work for
Display Board

I would like to start pasting info

on my board on this date.

4/24/16

Deadline for Display

Board

I would like to have my final

Display Board ready by this date.

4/18/16

Get Signatures for

Petition

On this day, I would like to start

having people sign my petition.

4/24/16

Email Advisor About

Presenting Product

I would like to email my advisor

by this date about my final
presentation and product and ask
for tips or suggestions for
anything I should add.

4/27/16

Have Final Product

Ready

I would like to have my final

product ready for presentation by
this day.

5/26/16

Present Final
Presentation

I would like to have all my

research and my final products
presented to my audience by this
date.

References:
Carpenter, Siri. "Sleep Deprivation May Be Undermining Teen Health." 32.9. (2010):42. Print.
Hancock, LynNell. "Do Kids Have Too Much Homework?" Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian.com,
21 August 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.
Kalish, Nancy. "Parents Should Take Action Against Excessive Homework." Do Students Have

Too Much Homework? Ed. Judeen Bartos. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue.
Rpt. from "The Less-Homework Revolution." Parenting (1 July 2008). Opposing
Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 Nov. 2015.
Richter, Ruthann. "Among Teens, Sleep Deprivation an Epidemic." News Center. Stanford
Medicine, 8 Oct. 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.
Walker, M.P., R. Stickgold, D. Alsop, N. Gaab, and G. Schlaug. "Sleep-Dependent Motor
Memory Plasticity in the Human Brain." Neuroscience 133 (911-917). M.P. Walker Et
Al., 1 Apr. 2005. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.