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Verduzco
Luis Verduzco

Professor Briones

English 1302 222

02/07/2022

Sleeps Effect on Motivation

Introduction:

It has been said a billion times, People need eight hours of sleep in order to function and

be healthy. However, does that sleep time also contribute to how people will perform at work or

school? Many people experience grogginess and a lack in motivation in work and school

settings, can this be related to their sleep also? These questions are tested in an experiment

conducted by a Texas A&M International University student and is backed up by “Association

between sleep quality and nurse productivity among Korean clinical nurses” by Eunok Park, et al

and “Cholinergic system in sleep regulation of emotion and motivation” by Ping Mu, et al. The

experiment aims to help resolve issues that people have while working through finding a

correlation to their lack in enthusiasm to their sleep. This experiment took place over the course

of five days while the student noted down anything and everything they felt.

Days 1-2:

The experiment consisted of recording how much the student had slept and how they felt

during the day in terms of motivation and productivity. On day one, the student reported to have

had about six hours of sleep. During that day he noted, “I spent an hour in bed after I had woken

up” among having no motivation and “putting things off for later” (Verduzco 1). The most

notable thing, however, was that the student scored lower on a quiz than he normally does

(Verduzco 1). These feelings coincide with the study of nurses in Korea where “The high
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prevalence of poor sleep quality […] might be attributed to difficult working conditions” (Park,

et al 1055). With this data, a conclusion can already be predetermined in that less sleep means

lower productivity and quality in that productivity. However, all days must be acknowledged. On

day two, the student slept for about eight hours, waking up a couple of times in the night

(Verduzco 2). During the day he reported to have “still spent an hour in bed after waking up” but

“did some tasks willingly” and “snacked less than yesterday” (Verduzco 2). This data might

seem off since he slept for eight hours but still feels unmotivated, however, he did tasks willingly

and snacked less. At first glance this might sound like unnecessary data, but the cholinergic

study demonstrates otherwise stating, “A behavioral correlate to sleep-induced changes in

emotional reactivity is altered reward (positive affect)-elicited behaviors” (Mu, et al 1). What

this is trying to say is that when sleep is altered, the reward processes in the brain are also

altered, causing a change in emotional reactions to easy rewards (Mu, et al 1). In day two, for

example, the student snacked less because he got more sleep, though this was missed in day one

because it feels like unnecessary data, he snacked more. This means that when the student slept

less his brains emotional response to rewards made him want more easily obtainable rewards,

such as snacks. Now in day two, where he got more sleep, his brain no longer wanted the easy

rewards as much. This could be caused by the fact that he didn’t get a full sleep, waking up in the

night a couple of times. If he had slept fully, his brain would want other rewards, such as

completing tasks, other than snacking.

Days 3-5:

On day three, he slept for eight hours uninterrupted (Verduzco 3). This time the student

said, “I got out of bed and went straight to the gym” (Verduzco 3). He also mentioned how he

did his tasks without issue and “played guitar for two hours” (Verduzco 3). This shows that
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sleeping for eight hours helped him be more productive. Like how it is stated in the cholinergic

study, “chronic sleep disturbances also lead to altered reward-seeking behaviors” (Mu, et al 1). If

this is true, then the opposite is also true; good sleep leads to normal reward seeking behaviors,

such as things that the student might want to do and tasks he needs to get done. Day four, he got

nine hours of sleep, spent yet another hour in bed after waking up, did homework “without

issues”, “did laundry”, and played guitar for an hour (Verduzco 4). On day five, he slept for ten

hours, “took [him] a while to fall asleep”, spent thirty minutes in bed, did some homework, and

played guitar for an hour. In these two days he got more than the recommended eight hours of

sleep, though he did, he still completed tasks (Verduzco 5). However, through the data, it can be

said that the productivity wasn’t as high as the day when he got eight hours of sleep. This can be

attributed to the longer sleep latency, the time it takes to fall asleep. This is talked about in the

nurse study in which it “indicated that longer sleep latency was correlated with a higher score for

global sleep quality […] and lower nurse productivity” (Park, et al 1056). And just like how he

stated, he slept longer but wasn’t as productive.

Conclusion:

With all this data, a conclusion can be made. The fact that when the student slept less

than eight hours it made him less productive and motivated means that less sleep makes a person

less motivated. However, something else that’s interesting is that if it takes someone a while to

fall asleep, they will probably sleep better but be somewhat unmotivated. All this being said, in

order to be motivated throughout the day, with sleep, a person must get at least eight hours of

uninterrupted, easy sleep. However, this data is only from one student and in order to draw a

better recommendation, more people need to be placed in the study. Nevertheless, what worked

for this student might not work for other people. One person might need eight hours of sleep
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while others might need ten, everybody is different and will have their own needs. The factors

that contribute to sleep related motivation can be clearly seen. For someone to be properly

motivated throughout the day, they must get a sufficient amount of sleep and be able to fall

asleep in a relatively short period of time. This just demonstrate the importance of sleep on

motivation. With all this data it can be said that sleep is an important factor in motivation,

without sleep a person will likely experience negative effects in their life because of their lack of

motivation.
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Works Cited

Mu, Ping, and Yanhua H Huang. “Cholinergic System in Sleep Regulation of Emotion and

Motivation.” Pharmacological Research, vol. 143, 2019, pp. 113–118.,

doi:10.1016/j.phrs.2019.03.013.

Park, Eunok. “Association between Sleep Quality and Nurse Productivity among Korean

Clinical Nurses.” Journal of Nursing Management, vol. 26, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1051–1058.,

doi:10.1111/jonm.12634.

Verduzco, Luis. Journal. 2022. Pg 1-5