THE EFFECTS OF LACK OF SLEEP TOWARDS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES

A Research Proposal

Presented to the Faculty

Of the Basic Education Department of

University of Cebu-LM

Cebu City

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements for the Subject

English 9

by:

DAFFEL CHAL SABROSO MARIA ANA SENO

AL GABRIEL SALIGAN CHARISSE WENCESLAO

ANA MARIE SENO CHRISTIAN DAVE RAMOS

KELN GARRYLE YBANEZ KATE ROSAROSO

KYLE ASHLEY TILAR

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researchers would like to express their utmost gratitude to the following individuals.

Relatives, UC Faculty, Classmates for their support throughout the researchers' journey

in completing this study. To the researchers ever-loving parents who are always there to

give the researchers courage to pursue their goals and provide financial and emotional

support. To their teachers and mentors who taught them principles that helped them

with their study. To the researchers' friends who are always capable of giving them

enough faith in doing this research at times of failures. And above all, the one who

created everything, the one who gives wisdom and strength, the one who picks you up

when you feel so broken, the Almighty Father. To whom the researchers offers his

entire endeavor for maki

 DEDICATION

This research is dedicated to our Almighty Father who gave us strength in our

ups and downs in doing this research study.

CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS SCOPE

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the Study

Any prolonged sleep deprivation will affect your mood, energy level and ability to

focus, concentrate and learn which directly affects your academic performances. The

cause of consumption of caffeinated beverages, like coffee, tea or energy drink,

students might be at risk for developing insomnia, as well as, increased risks for alcohol

abuse and road accidents. The truth is, pulling all-nighters and maintaining bad sleeping

habits will be detrimental to your health. Students of different education levels from

school to university are chronically sleep deprived or suffer from poor sleep quality and

consequent daytime sleepiness. The sleep quality and quantity are closely related to

student learning capacity and academic performance. In addition, the sleep loss is

frequently associated with poor declarative and procedural learning in students. This

study will assess that bad sleeping patterns contributes to poor academic performances.

This research will manifest the impact of lack of sleep to the students'

performances in school. In addition, lack of sleep can affect the ability to concentrate in

class and focus on what the lessons are. The students prefer to go to sleep than paying

attention to the discussions. In other words, low grades will be their opponent. In

addition, sleep deprivation affects the ability of students to perform well in class in a

significant way. Also, students who slept for less than six hours showed signs of anxiety,

neurotic feelings, lack of creativity and more prone to hallucination that may cause the

students to receive a lower grade or even a failing grade. Their grades from the
performances like role plays can be lower than the lowest accepted grade which is 75.

Furthermore, students who experience this doesn't have a high self-esteem and

confidents in approaching in front of everyone, thus, they might have a fear of attention

in public which we called as scopophobia. Other than that, students who lacks on sleep

might experience memory loss. According to research the brain replays information

while you are awake, so if you had a time sleeping then your studied information is

stored in the long-term memory. But if you don’t have enough time to sleep then your

brain doesn't have enough time to run through the cycle, that affect the students,

unable to retain the information that he or she memorized. Furthermore, without proper

sleep, memory and the ability to concentrate as well as high cognitive functioning is

severely affected.

This study will assess the effects of sleep deprivation towards academic

performances and displays the realization of the importance of sleeping early. The

proposal will influence the young students to adopt what should be done and what

shouldn't. It will help you conduct learning from the proposal given. It is useful to

student who didn't sleep early so that they can realize the importance of sleeping in

advance. In addition, it also assists the student to realize in preventing tardiness, thus

help him or her to pay attention in the class. Furthermore, this research can possibly

wake up the student on realizing on how valuable this research proposal will be. In

addition, awareness in sleeping late at night causing improper habits and health

circumstances might be the possible outcomes that the student will be enhancing after

reading the research proposal. Furthermore, they will know the rapid effects of sleep

deprivation, thus it can apply to them the value of sleeping early and the good benefits
it had. Students who don’t put sleep high up in their priorities aren’t actually doing

themselves any favors. And as results day looms, they could very well find their sacrifice

has been for nothing. This research shows that students who sleep early will gain good

grades.
Theoretical Background

This study is anchored on the Restoration Theory of Sleep by Oswald (1966) and

supported by Brain Plasticity Theory by William James (1890) and Hibernation Theory by

Webb (1982). There have been a lot of medical researchers who have put forward

theories about why we sleep, but most of these theories are largely incomplete. There

are numerous theories of sleep, but none of them has been proven correct. However,

there’s no clear cut answer to this challenging question, one thing these experts all

agree on is that sleep plays a very critical role in our overall health and wellness. Also,

there are some rather obvious clues that could help explain our need to nap on a daily

basis. One such clue is the fact that, for most of us, a goodnight’s slumber leaves us

feeling much better in the morning, whereas a lack of a decent night’s rest leaves one

feeling much worse. The repair and restoration theory is perhaps one of the most

popular theories of sleep.

According to it, sleep affords the body the much needed opportunity it requires

to repair and rejuvenate itself, which involves restoring and revitalizing the physiological

processes which keep your body and mind healthy and functioning

properly. Furthermore, Restoration Theory of Sleep by Oswald (1966) that is extended

by Stern and Morgane, Hartmann and Horne is perhaps one of the most popular

theories of sleep. According to it, sleep affords the body the much needed opportunity it

requires to repair itself, which involves restoring and revitalizing the physiological

processes which keep your body and mind healthy and functioning properly. Hartmann

(1973) claimed that REM sleep is necessary for synthesizing noradrenaline and

dopamine to compensate for the amount used during the day, which was supported by
Stern and Morgan (1974) who stated that REM sleep allows the brain to restore levels of

neurotransmitters to ‘factory settings’. According to Oswald (1966), the function of sleep

is to restore the body during periods of inactivity so that adequate biological functioning

is ensured. Specifically, Oswald claims that NREM sleeps restores biological processes

that have deteriorate during the day and REM sleep replenishes and renews brain

processes through the process of protein synthesis. Horne (1988) extends Oswald’s

theory. He suggests that sleep is divided into core sleep (REM and SWS) and optional

sleep. He suggests that brain restoration and repair take place during core sleep. Bodily

restoration occurs during optional sleep, but can also occur at other times. This theory

had some evidences including:(1) The Changes in Sleep Patterns over the Lifespan; (2)

Sleep Patterns Following Brain Insult; (3) Sleep Patterns and Illness; (4) Hormonal

Fluctuations During Sleep (Oswald 1966). Oswald (1966) also proposed the different

functions of SWS and REM sleep in Restoration Theory. SWS enables body repair and

REM enables brain recovery. Evidences for Oswald's restoration theory of sleep is the

studies of sleep patterns as a child grows older. Babies sleep far more than older

children and adults, and they spend much more of their sleep time in REM. Babies spend

about 18 hours in every 24 asleep, and about half of this in REM. By the age of five, this

has fallen to about 8 hours in every 24, only a quarter in REM, which remains basically

the same for the rest of their life. Since the first five years are very important for brain

development, where a great deal of protein synthesis is necessary for cell growth and

manufacture, it makes sense that a younger child would require far more REM sleep

than an adult. Another one is the illness due to the sleep pattern, if sleep is required for

immune functioning, then we might expect total sleep time to increase during periods of
illness. This theory is supported by several researchers with several evidences. Support

for the Restoration Theory comes from research into total sleep deprivation, where by

individuals have experienced constant wakefulness over a temporary period of time. This

can be seen in the case of Randy Gardner, a 17 years old student, who stayed awake

for 11 days and experienced effects such as disorganized speech, blurred vision, and a

small degree of paranoia. Furthermore, Peter Tripp, a New York DJ, volunteered to take

part in a sleep deprivation study, and stayed awake for 8 days. He also experienced

abnormal behaviors such as delusions and hallucinations. This lends weight to the idea

that the purpose of sleep is to restore the brain and body so that it functions efficiently,

as being deprived of this brings about adverse, and potentially dangerous, side effects;

although these were only short-term for Randy Gardner. Another one is the study of

Rechtschaffen of a total sleep deprivation in 1983 whereby two rats were placed on a

disc above a container of water. Only one was able to sleep, and the other began to

rotate on the disc until it fell into water. The results proved fatal as the sleep-deprived

rats died within 33 days, yet those who were not deprived of sleep appeared not to

suffer from the experiment. This reflects the importance of sleep and how necessary it is

for survival. This study is supported by Jouvet (1967) who conducted research into the

effects of sleep deprivation by partially depriving cats of sleep using the ‘flower pot

technique’. The cats were placed on a flowerpot in a tank of water and were able to

sleep without falling off during NREM, but fell off during REM due to loss of muscle

control. Again, depriving the cats of REM sleep had fatal consequences. In addition, in

1960 Dement deprived human participants of either NREM or REM sleep to test the

differences in the effects between the two. He found that the effects of REM deprivation
were more severe, and included increased aggression and poor concentration, and that

the participants in this condition had a greater need to catch up on this stage of sleep.

When they were allowed to sleep normally, they spent much longer than usual in REM

sleep, which supports the prediction of the Restoration Theory of the ‘rebound effect’

and Horne’s concept of core sleep. This theory is supported by Brain Plasticity Theory by

William James (1890) which stated that sleep is correlated to the organization and the

structure of the brain. This is one of the most recent and compelling theories of sleep.

In his seminal work ‘The Principles of Psychology ‘. There he wrote that “Organic matter,

especially nervous tissue, seems endowed with a very extraordinary degree of plasticity.

The idea that sleep might be involved in brain plasticity has been investigated for many

years through a large number of animal and human studies, but evidence remains

unsure. Large amounts of sleep in early life suggest that sleep may play a role in brain

maturation. In particular, the influence of sleep in developing the visual system has

been highlighted. This phenomenon, known as brain plasticity, is not entirely

understood, but its connection to sleep has several critical implications. It is becoming

clear, for example, that sleep plays a critical role in brain development in infants and

young children. Infants spend about 13 to 14 hours per day sleeping, and about half of

that time is spent in REM sleep, the stage in which most dreams occur. A link between

sleep and brain plasticity is becoming clear in adults as well. This is seen in the effect

that sleep and sleep deprivation have on people's ability to learn and perform a variety

of tasks. For instance, in one experiment a number of volunteers were given aptitude

tests such as remembering a sequence of patterns presented to them on a computer.

Half of the volunteers were shown these patterns during the morning session, and the
other half in the evening, after which, their memories were tested by the team of

researchers. For the morning volunteers, the test was done after a full day of being

awake while the evening learners were tested after a night's sleep; and sure enough,

the individuals allowed to sleep had better recollection of the test patterns. The

argument presented above can also be used to explain why sleep is vital in the brain

development of infants and young children. That is, the same reasoning can be used to

argue that, the reason why infants spend a huge part of their lives sleeping is because

at this stage, babies are constantly learning about the world around them and hence,

they require more deep sleep for them to process all this information. Although these

theories remain unproven, science has made tremendous strides in discovering what

happens during sleep and what mechanisms in the body control the cycles of sleep and

wakefulness that help define our lives. Furthermore, while plasticity occurs throughout

the lifetime, certain types of changes are more predominant during specific life ages.

The brain tends to change a great deal during the early years of life, for example, as the

immature brain grows and organizes itself. Generally, young brains tend to be more

sensitive and responsive to experiences than much older brains. Plasticity can occur as a

result of learning, experience, and memory formation, or as a result of damage to the

brain. While people used to believe that the brain became fixed after a certain age,

newer research has revealed that the brain never stops changing in response to

learning. In instances of damage to the brain, such as during a stroke, the areas of the

brain associated with certain functions may be damaged. Eventually, healthy parts of

the brain may take over those functions and the abilities can be restored. Other

supporting theory is the Energy Conservation Theory by Webb (1974) that later on he
called as Hibernation Theory. It suggested that sleep evolved because it allows an

organism better chance of survival in hostile environment. Webb suggests sleep evolved

because it forces animal to conserve energy. Based on the evolutionary theory this

person came up with his conservation theory. He compared sleep to hibernation as they

both occur when food is not available and the body is inactive. Similarly, to the

protection theory he also discusses night time is a pointless time to be searching for

food hence why humans sleep during these period to conserve energy. This theory is

much clearer and less ambiguous than the protection theory. The second champion of

Energy Conservation Theory is Empson. He stated that animals are simply biding their

time until their environment became more suitable, so the function of sleep was to

"Waste time.” There are two researchers who provided the evidences of Energy

Conservation Theory, they are Zeppelin and Rechstchaffen. Their research showed a

relationship between metabolic rate and animal size with the amount of time spent

sleeping in many animal species. In addition, they found that smaller animals with high

metabolic rates slept for longer than larger animals. Support for this theory comes from

the comparative research of different animal species. Animals that have few natural

predators, such as bears and lions, often sleep between 12 to 15 hours each day. This

supports the view that energy conservation might be the main function of sleep.

However, relationship was not true in all animal species with some larger animals

sleeping for longer periods of time. On the other hand, animals that have many natural

predators have only short periods of sleep, usually getting no more than 4 or 5 hours of

sleep each day. For example, the giant sloth which sleeps for 10 hours a day. Recent

research has suggested that the captive giant sloth sleeps for longer in the zoo than its
wild co counterpart. It is clear that it is essential that birds and mammals including

humans spend a considerable amount of time asleep. However, it is as yet unclear why

sleep is required and maintained by evolution, and what factors influence the length and

architecture of sleep-wake cycles in different species and at different times in the life

cycle. Many attempts have been made to explain why we sleep and it has been

demonstrated that lack of sleep has a profoundly negative effect on life. Current

theories explore various aspects of sleep often based on observations made during sleep

deprivation. However, there is no consensus as to the “core” function of sleep, if indeed

there is only a single core function. Currently, there are few comprehensive and fully

integrative functional studies explaining the molecular, structural, and

electrophysiological functions of sleep. The quest to understand the various functions,

and possibly the overall central or core function of sleep will continue and the findings of

future studies will open new doors for approaching normal and abnormal sleep.
 THE PROBLEM

Statement of the Problem

This study entitled "The "Effects of Lack of Sleep Towards Academic

Performances " aims to investigate an after comes of sleep deprivation. The findings will

be use as the basis of a proposed action plan.

Specifically, the study must answer the following questions:

1. What are the disadvantages of being sleep deprived in the academic performance

Junior High School students?

2. What are the effects of sleep deprivation to the students and their academic

performance?

3. What influence does sleep deprivation have on a high school student’s behavior?

4. What time do students usually go to bed on school days?

5. What is the main reason the students usually go to bed at this time on school days?

6. Based on the findings, what action plan maybe proposed?

Significance of the Study

The researchers believe that this study will be significant to the following:

Teachers. This study could help them to understand the effects of sleep

deprivation in the academic performance of their students and may serve as an eye

opener on how they will handle them.

School Administration. This study could help the school to find out what is

needed to improve the school schedule.

Dep Ed. This study will help them in developing programs.

Students. This study will help them to open their minds that being sleep

deprived affects their academic performances and can motivate them to perform well in

class.

The Researchers. The findings of this study will help the researchers to

develop their cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain in terms of conducting

research.

Future Researchers. This study will serve as their future reference in

conducting a research which is related in this study