HEALTH AND WELLNESS: A QUALITATIVE

STUDY ON SLEEP DEPRIVED STUDENTS

A Qualitative Research
Presented to the Faculty of Ateneo de Davao University Senior High
School

In partial fulfillment of the requirements

in
PRACTICAL RESEARCH 1

Jose Antonio Vicente G. Bañes

Fernan Joseph A. Bantiding
Ira Brian B. Cabuenas
Chryzella Ryanne P. Lamoste
Danica Anne L. Miranda
Vienne Erika T. Pretila
Danica Leanne B. Romero

Grade 12 - Dajani
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Clarice Angeline G. Reyes

Research Adviser

October 2019

1
 ATENEO de DAVAO UNIVERSITY
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL
Jacinto St., Davao City, Philippines

APPROVAL SHEET

In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements for the course subject Practical

Research 1 under the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics strand,
this study is entitled:

HEALTH AND WELLNESS: A QUALITATIVE

STUDY ON SLEEP DEPRIVED STUDENTS

Has been prepared and submitted by Bañes, Jose Antonio Vicente,

Bantiding, Fernan Joseph, Cabuenas, Ira Brian, Lamoste, Chryzella Ryanne,
Miranda, Danica Anne, Pretila, Vienne Erika, Romero, Danica Leanne, who are
recommended for the CULMINATING PERFORMANCE TASK.

__________________________________________
Clarice Angeline G. Reyes
Research Adviser

APPROVED in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course subject

Practical Research 1, under Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Strand by the Office of the STEM Chairperson.

_________________________________________
Engr. Ottoman B. Montani, Jr., ME-ECE
Chairperson – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

ACCEPTED in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Practical Research

1.
October 23,2019 ______________________
Date Aujefel Amor Y. Lee
Assistant Director for Academics
Senior High School Unit

2
 ATENEO DE DAVAO UNIVERSITY
SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL UNIT
Jacinto St., Davao City, Philippines

Declaration of Originality

We declare that this research is original to the best of our knowledge.

We declare further that this activity was undertaken by us.

Jose Antonio Vicente G. Bañes

Chryzella Ryanne P. Lamoste
Fernan Joseph A. Bantiding
Danica Leanne B. Romero
Danica Anne L. Miranda
Vienne Erika T. Pretila
Ira Brian B. Cabuenas

Researchers

October 11, 2019

3
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The researchers acknowledge with sincere appreciation and gratitude to

all the assistance and encouragement afforded them by the following persons

without which this humble work would not have found recognition and fulfillment

and whom God used to show His divine order for the success of this study:

Ms. Clarice Angeline G. Reyes, their thesis adviser, who despite of her

busy schedule rendered her time, patience, and consideration to the

researchers. The researchers would like to thank her for unselfishly sharing her

thoughts, insights, expertise and her sympathetic guidance on this work.

Ms. Frances Palou, for her inspiring comments and valuable

suggestions which greatly helped in the completion of this research.

Engr. Ottoman B. Montani Jr., ME-ECE, and Ms. Ericka Jan S. Gadat,

LPT for allowing the researchers to conduct the study.

Ms. Aujefel Amor Y. Lee, LPT, for lending us the time to administer the

tests to their students and for treating the researchers nicely and welcoming

them to their school.

The families of the researchers namely: Mr. and Mrs. Banes, Mr. and

Mrs. Bantiding, Mr. and Mrs. Cabuenas, Mr. and Mrs. Lamoste, Mr. and Mrs.

Miranda, Mr. and Mrs. Pretila, Mr. and Mrs. Romero, for their moral and

financial support, inspiration and encouragement.

Warmest and heartfelt thanks to the 10 participants who shared their

moments even in pressured days for the completion of this study.

To those who were not mentioned but in some ways helped the

researchers, thank you very much.

4
 Eternal gratitude and adoration to the Lord, the source of blessings and

wisdom, for giving them the courage, the strength and perseverance, and for

His heavenly guidance in the accomplishment of this work. To Him be the glory,

honor and power forever.

The Researchers

5
 DEDICATION

This study is dedicated to the following:

Family Members

Friends

Classmates

STEM, 12 - Dajani

And

The Almighty Father

“We will do our best, and God will do the rest.”

6
 ABSTRACT

A learner experiencing sleep deprivation may endure physical and

mental health effects which allows higher risk of illnesses and behavioral
changes. The study was conducted to understand sleep deprivation and its
implications, as well as raising awareness by gaining information through the
experiences and challenges of the participants. Phenomenology is the research
design that was used and a total of 10 learners participated in this study. The
data was collected for over two weeks using semi-structured interview through
an outline and questions made by the researchers and interpreting the data
gathered with thematic analysis to identify meaning from the data.
The results indicated that the participants experienced academic
challenges, physiological problems, and mental disturbance. Furthermore, the
participants had to deal with challenges like health problems, emotional
instability, time-management issues, and low academic performance. Lastly,
the learners shared their insights which are concerned with coping
mechanisms, basic human necessity, recognizing evident effects, and their
perception towards sleep deprivation.
The implications of the study suggest that (1) the educational institution
should provide assistance in identifying sleep deprived learners and create a
program to help them deal with said problem and provide them with possible
solutions to their sleeping problems and, (2) the school should cover the
importance of sleep and the consequences of sleep deprivation on their
curriculum, as well as organizing an interactive seminar in order to achieve a
deeper understanding on sleep deprivation and present coping mechanisms
towards the learners experiencing this.
Keywords: Sleep deprivation, Phenomenology, Semi-Structured Interview

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Title Page i
Approval Sheet ii
Declaration of Originality iii
Acknowledgement Page iv
Dedication v
Abstract vi
Table of Contents vii
List of Tables viii
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION
Theoretical Lens 3-4
Research Questions 4
Significance of the Study 4-5
Scope and Delimitation 5-6
Definition of Terms 6-7
2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 8-19
3 METHOD
Research Design 20-21
Research Participants 21-22
Role of the Researcher 22
Data Source 22-23
Data Collection 23-24
Data Analysis 24-25
Trustworthiness of the Study 25-27
Ethical Considerations 27-28
4 PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
The various experience of the sleep deprived participants. 29-34
The Challenges that Sleep-Deprived students face. 34-43
Students’ insights/realizations towards sleep deprivation. 43-52
5 DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Different experiences of the sleep deprived participants. 53-55
The Challenges that Sleep-Deprived students face. 56-57
Students’ insights towards sleep deprivation. 58-69
Implications on Sleep Deprivation 59
Implications on STEM Education 59-60
Concluding Remarks 60-61
REFERENCES 62-67
APPENDICES
A. Interview Questions 68

B. Permission Letter to the Assistant Director of Academics 69

C. Informed Consent of Participant A 70
D. Informed Consent of Participant B 71
E. Informed Consent of Participant C 72

73

8
 F. Informed Consent of Participant D
74
G. Informed Consent of Participant E
75
H. Informed Consent of Participant F
76
I. Informed Consent of Participant G
77
J. Informed Consent of Participant H
78
K. Informed Consent of Participant I
79
L. Informed Consent of Participant J

CURRICULUM VITAE 80-86

9
 LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 1. Different Experiences of the Students with regard to Sleep 30
Deprivation.
Table 2. The Challenges that Sleep-Deprived students face. 35-36
Table 3. Students’ insights/realizations towards sleep deprivation. 45-46

10
 CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

There was a case back in 1959 wherein a famous radio DJ, Peter Tripp

went through a 200-hour no sleep publicity stunt which gathered a lot of

attention by netizens. Although he was able to successfully do it, the health

consequences of his action were severe, such as intense hallucinations and

headache. This incident only proves that sleeping is essential in human life.

Sleep is a state wherein it decreases a person’s awareness to an environmental

stimulus (Mandal, 2019). It has two main types: rapid eye movement (REM)

and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. The electroencephalogram (EEG)

shows that a rapid eye movement is a paradoxical state of sleep wherein a

brain appears to be awake, but an individual is in deep sleep. On the other

hand, non-rapid eye movement is an orthodox state of sleep that has lack of

motor activity and the electrocenphalogram (EEG) shows that brain appears to

be calm (Memar & Faradiji, 2018). Without proper amount of sleep, it can affect

a person’s cognitive performance, attention, memory and logical reasoning.

Furthermore, this may lead to depression, anxiety and poor well-being among

individuals especially to students (Hershner & Chervin, 2014).

Sleep deprivation is common among students. A worldwide statistic

shows that 97% of teenagers get less than the amount of recommended sleep

each night (Rodriguez, 2015). Furthermore, a study conducted by Hershner and

Chervin (2014), states that irregular sleep schedules are highly prevalent

among students and 87% of these students believe that insufficient sleep affect

their academic performance. The increasing rate of sleep deprivation concerns

11
all educational institutions for it affects one’s physical and mental health that

allows more risk to health problems and behavioral changes towards students.

In the Philippines, the 2016 Healthy Living Index Survey discusses that

Filipinos have one of the highest rates of sleep deprivation in Asia wherein 46%

of Filipinos do not get enough sleep and 32% said that they only sleep for less

than 6 hours. Another study conducted by Pablo (2014), states that insufficient

amount of sleep is caused by the hectic class schedules of students that starts

within 7am to 5pm, and school responsibilities such as making assignments,

drills and performance tasks. The Philippine Council for Health Research and

Development (PCHRD) also confirms that there is a significant relationship

between the sleeping patterns of students and their health, allowing a person

to have more risk in getting physical or mental problems from insufficient sleep.

In Mindanao, there was a study conducted by Perez (2015), that 60% of

her respondents in Central Mindanao University admitted that they are sleep

deprived affecting their overall performance in school. The respondents also

stated that sleep deprivation causes lack of focus and concentration during

class hours.

In this study, we formulated three main goals that would be

accomplished to fill in the purpose of our study. First, we aim to determine the

different experiences of sleep deprived learners of Ateneo de Davao University

(AdDU SHS) on how it affect their productivity. Second, be able to identify

challenges they faced by sleep deprived students. Lastly, to have an in-depth

understanding upon their various insights of students with regards to their

productivity and mental competency, and how they could cope up with it.

Overall, we aim that through this study, we will understand sleep deprivation

12
and its implications, and raise awareness by gaining information through the

experiences and challenges of the participants.

Purpose of the Study

We were motivated to do this study because, as students we continue

to get restless nights. Since many schools start early in the morning, we tend

to cram and finish our assignments late at night and start to forget that we, too,

need sleep. Along with the arising number of sleep deprived students, it has

come to our attention that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed.

With this context, we would like to let students understand what sleep

deprivation is and what can happen when you have sleep deprivation.

Furthermore, this study is to let learners know how sleep deprivation can

change our mental and physical well-being, and that it can change how we act

towards things when a person doesn’t get enough sleep.

Theoretical Lens

Working and moving around for a whole day requires rest to be able to

recover the energy that was lost. This can be explained through Oswald's

(1980) Restoration Theory of Sleep. It states that sleep allows the human body

to repair and rejuvenate itself. It restores and revitalizes the physiological

processes that keeps the body healthy and the mind functioning properly. It

also explains that to be able to successfully undergo different body restorative

functions like muscle growth and tissue repair, the person must have enough

rest. This theory has been supported by a few reasonable evidences as well.

Experiments were also conducted to prove this theory and results show that

sleep allows the body to strengthen its immune system. This theory was used

13
in our study as it shows the correlation of sleep and as to how it affects one's

physical health and mental state.

The restoration theory of sleep that was developed by Oswald is parallel

to the aim of our whole research. Considering that we dealt with students who

acquire less than 5 hours of sleep per day only, we can use the theory as the

basis as to why a student experiences any problems physically and mentally.

Sleep deprivation may cause a disruption with the restorative functions that

should be occurring in the body while at rest and therefore, it might be able to

explain as to why a person experiences the said complications.

Research Questions

This study aims to explore the effects of sleep deprivation on the mental

and physical well-being of Senior High School students. In this study, the

following research questions were addressed:

1. What are the different experiences of the Grade 12 AdDU-SHS

Learners with regard of sleep deprivation?

2. What are the challenges that the sleep deprived Grade 12 AdDU-

SHS Learners face?

3. What are the Grade 12 AdDU-SHS Learners’ insights about sleep

deprivation?

Importance of the Study

Lack of sleep and sleeping disorders can lead to serious, life-threatening

consequences. That is why this is an issue that everyone should be aware of.

The purpose of this study is to explore the effects of sleep deprivation on the

mental and physical well-being of the students. The results of the study will be

of great benefit of the following:

14
 Grade 12 AdDU-SHS Learners. The results will provide the students

who are more likely to experience sleep deprivation with knowledge on the

effects of loss of sleep or sleep deprivation in their physical and mental health.

It will raise awareness among the students and will help them in preventing the

development of diseases caused by lack of sleep. At the end of this study,

students will understand the importance of sleep in our body.

Ateneo de Davao University Senior High School. The results will give

the institution, Ateneo de Davao University Senior High School (AdDU-SHS), a

better understanding on students that experience sleep deprivation and the

possible factors that causes the lack of sleep. In that way, the institution can

provide a better way of learning without imposing health-related consequence.

Future Researchers. This research will be a useful reference for the

researchers who want to conduct a study in line with sleep deprivation or the

importance of sleep. The results will provide further information that could help

them in making an improved and more detailed study.

Scope and Delimitation

Our study focused on one of the educational institutions in Davao City:

AdDU-SHS. To narrow the scope of our study, the participants were limited to

Grade 12 learners who acquire less than 5 hours of sleep. Our study was

conducted inside the school’s premises. As the study is qualitative in nature,

covered the experiences and challenges of the students that are sleep deprived

in the 1st grading of the 1st semester in the school year 2019-2020, as well as

their insights. The students experiencing less than 5 hours of sleep per day

were only the participants of our study.

15
 This study did not cover students who are from Grade 11, as well as

those who are from other schools. Secondly, students who are experiencing

more than 5 hours of sleep per day were not considered to be possible

participants to this study. Furthermore, we, the researchers did not take into

account the participants’ experiences from previous quarters, semesters or

school years. Lastly, the study did not use numerical data, which resulted to

non-conclusive data, and was not generalizable to other students in the AdDU-

SHS nor other institutions with similar experiences.

Definition of Terms

Our study contains several important terms and this part provides the

definition of the specialized terms that our group will utilize. This is to prevent

any confusion on the part of our readers.

Sleep Deprivation. According to Department of Health & Human

Services (2014), sleep deprivation is a general term to describe a state caused

by insufficient amount or quality of sleep, including voluntary or involuntary

sleeplessness and circadian rhythm sleep disorders.

Mental Health. According to the World Health Organization (2014),

Mental Health is defined as a state of well-being in which every individual

realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can

work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his

community. As sleep and mental health are closely connected, sleep

deprivation can gravely affect one’s mental health.

Mental Well-being. According to Peterson (2018), mental well-being is

the state of thriving in various areas of life, such as in school, work and

relationships through ups and downs. It is the knowledge of a person when

16
he/she can separate his/her problems and the belief that he/she can handle

those problems. Having a comfortable and healthy mental state may be at risk

because of sleep deprivation.

Physical Well-being. According to Econation for People and Planet

(2019), physical well-being is about being safe, sheltered and in good health

and it is closely connected to mental well-being. The physical state of being

comfortable and healthy of our respondents despite their possible weakened

immune system.

17
 CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES

This chapter discusses different literatures in relation to our topic which

is sleep deprivation. We gathered these in accordance to the research

questions that we have created. The following literatures discuss about different

subtopics such as physiological and mental effects of people, as well as the

factors on why they are experiencing sleep deprivation. Furthermore, this will

tackle about the challenges they have encountered, and their insights regarding

the topic.

Sleep deprivation is one of the prevalent problems that our society faces

right now, for it touches not just one, but different aspects of life. According to

the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2008), the amount of sleep a person

needs varies from one individual to another. Most of the adults must have about

seven to eight hours of sleep on average every night to feel well rested.

Teenagers are required to have nine hours of sleep every night and children

need nine hours of sleep or more, depending on their age. In a survey

conducted on 2016, it was discovered that Philippines is one of the countries

with the highest rate of sleep deprivation in Asia. It showed that 46% of the

Filipino population do not get enough sleep while 32% claimed that they sleep

for only six hours.

Physiological Effects of Sleep Deprivation

People respond and cope up differently when it comes to lack of sleep,

may it be partial, short-term or long-term sleep deprivation. Partial deprivation

means sleeping for less than 5 hours in a day (24-hour period), short-term sleep

deprivation is when one did not sleep for a day or two (24-48 hours) and long-

18
term sleep deprivation is when a person did not sleep for more than two days

(more than 48 hours). It was said that experiencing lack of sleep can cause

negative impacts and effects on different aspects of a person’s life like its

cognitive, behavioral, physiological, and emotional measures (Pressman,

1997). Some of these negative effects are abrupt change in one’s mood, gets

irritated and upset easily, experiences difficulty in focusing and can even lead

into short-term changes in a person’s memory. Sleep deprivation can also

cause for a person to undergo paranoia, hallucinations and phantasms.

Results were similarly the same from the study conducted by Binks

(1999). Research shows that bad mood, utter sleepiness, exhaustion and

decreased level of attentiveness are manifested by a sleep deprived person.

According to the study, people who lack sleep delineated their experience of

hallucinations and paranoia. Studies that are systematically and critically made

reported that total sleep deprivation has no permanent effects although it may

cause temporary impairment in one’s mental processes.

According to Kloss et al. (2017), those experiencing sleep deprivation

complain of physical ailments that vary as consequences of sleep loss.

Weakness, heart palpitations, stomach discomfort, diarrhea, headache are

some of the possible consequences of sleep deprivation. Furthermore, the

neurobehavioral and physiological effects of fatigue and drowsiness caused by

sleep loss may lead to various performance detriments and potentially

dangerous situations such as traffic and work accidents. It was observed that

in traffic accidents, the amount of sleep the driver obtains prior to the accident

inversely predicts the likelihood of a motor vehicle accident. This is the same

condition for work accidents as the manual laborers are under a much higher

19
risk of getting into an accident in their workplace when they have insufficient

sleep preceding to the accident happening.

Kloss et al. (2017) acknowledged the most common effect of sleep

deprivation is the physiological sleepiness, or the tendency to fall asleep when

there is an absence of stimuli. The sleepiness experienced by an individual

becomes extreme after being deprived from a single night of sleep. Without

competing stimuli, an individual that is sleep deprived can fall asleep within 2-

3 minutes the following day. This can cause significant effects on an individual’s

productivity. After about 48 hours of no sleep, micro sleeps are most likely to

happen even though an individual is physically active. As sleepiness escalates,

an individual must increase effort to still be in good condition and have a stable

level of physical performance.

The analysis of human sleep deprivation studies is difficult because the

results have been inconsistent. According to Banfi et al. (2019), sleep

deprivation up to 72 hours had no effect on strength or motor performance of

an individual, except for experiencing exhaustion in a faster time. Additionally,

Goh et al. (2001) were influenced to study the effects of sleep deprivation in the

military. According to the authors, the study was conducted because there is a

need for development of valid and reliable techniques to study how sleep

deprivation affects overall performance. This can lead to formulation of ideas to

create procedures to reduce sleep-related problems. The authors presumed

that the harmful effects of sleep deprivation on performance are apparently

related to 7 hours of sleep loss. It means that the longer the duration of sleep

deprivation, the more risk from disturbance. The study tested the effects of

sleep deprivation on productivity and performance using the rotary pursuit test.

20
During the rotary pursuit test the participants were asked to place a stylus tip in

contact with the rotating target and maintain contact at all times. The sleep-

deprived group performed better than the control group. However, there was

no significant interaction found. The study shows that one night of sleep

deprivation resulted in significant hormonal changes, but less likely to affect

tracking and muscular strength performance (Goh et al., 2001).

Mental Effects of Sleep Deprivation

A lot of people try to alter their schedule to accomplish more tasks that

causes sleep deprivation. Neurology (2019) stated that, lack of sleep can lead

to health problems which include poor memory, loss of attention, low immune

system, sudden changes of mood, and depression. Brains need enough sleep

to work and function properly. Sleep deprivation produces a deficiency in

hippocampal activity while the memory encoding is occurring that leads to a

worse retention, compromising the neural and behavioral proficiency (Yoo et

al., 2007). Hippocampus is a part of the brain that stores new memories.

However, their ability to retain new information declines when the hippocampus

is affected from sleep deprivation as it causes to fill up the storage capacity of

it that prevents new information to be stored (Tamminen 2016).

According to Saghir et al. (2018), studies have shown that sleep

deprivation has similar effects to adults, teens, and even children. In fact, even

one sleepless night aggravates mood swings, such as irritability, depression,

and anxiety, and can result to disorientation, weariness, and loss of stamina.

The studies indicate that sleep deprivation can affect mental health by hindering

the brain to process information and stabilizing memory. In which it could

prevent a person to be competent and productive. Moreover, the literatures

21
states that moods and behaviour can also be affected by the mental effects of

sleep deprivation.

Moreover, sleep deprivation may affect a person in several ways

according to Snyder (2003), one is the weakened problem-solving skills which

lets us think more rigidly and less flexibly, and lessens our ability to be

innovative in creating solutions to problems. Another is that it can obstruct our

communicating, memory and learning skills, which may lead to undesirable

experiences that can further make our lives harder. Finally, it can harm our

motor skills, and is confirmed by researchers that it is more severe than

drunkenness.

People who experience sleep deprivation may feel sleepy during the day

that their attention and performance suffer. As cited by Snyder (2003), an

example is that it may lead to more motor vehicle collisions. A study discovered

that people suffering from sleep deprivation due to sleep apnea are six times

more likely to be involved in a motor vehicle accident than a person who does

not suffer from fatigue. Furthermore, they are more likely to be involved in

industrial accidents rather than people non-apnea workers.

The Mental Health America also conducted a study and found out that

brain cells do shrink when a person experiences sleep deprivation. The findings

of the study also show that then in fatigue neurons in the brain moves slower

than usual. Sleep deprivation also changes your appetite which can make your

body crave unhealthy food and may lead to stress eating, having unwanted

weight gain and diabetes. It may also be a reason to a prolonged sleep

deprivation. In addition, when you sleep, your immune system regains its

22
strength and creates antibodies, but because of sleep deprivation this disturbs

the development of antibodies and you are more likely to get sick than before.

Factors Causing Sleep Deprivation

There are various factors that causes a person to get insufficient sleep

that may lead to sleep deprivation. Chervin and Hershner (2014) conducted a

study about causes and consequences of sleepiness among college students.

The results of the study showed that one factor that causes lack of sleep is

having an inadequate sleep hygiene through alcohol consumption, caffeine and

energy drinks intake and improper use of technology. Good sleep hygiene

includes a regular sleep and wake schedule, quite sleep environment, and

avoiding stimulating activities before sleep. However, many students are found

to have poor sleeping behavior causing sleep deprivation.

According to the study, approximately four out of five college students

drink alcohol. Alcohol shortens sleep latency but then promotes fragmented

sleep in the latter half of the night. Also, alcohol may increase the risk of

obstructive sleep apnea. Caffeine is an adenosine receptor antagonist and can

increase arousal. It may also act on the neurons of the posterior hypothalamus

to suppress sleep-promoting pathways. This suppression leads to the increase

of vigilance, alertness and decreases sleepiness. In this study, the effect of

caffeine lasted from 5.5 hours to 7.5 hours, which implicates that the intake of

caffeine could impair the ability to sleep. Inadequate sleep hygiene can also be

attributed to the use of technology prior to bed. It was found out that light

exposure coming from the gadgets can suppress melatonin which helps in

regulating the circadian rhythm to the environment, resulting to delay in sleep

onset.

23
 Sleep deprivation can also be caused by different medical problems

such as depression, obstructive sleep apnea, hormone imbalances and other

chronic illnesses (Davis, 2018, as cited by Henna, 2018). Al-Abri (2015)

conducted a study on the association of sleep deprivation and depression.

Sleep deprivation has been shown to alter the daily performance of an

individual that can be addressed to the association with depressive symptoms.

The study concluded that depression can lead to disturbed sleep which is

evident as a symptom of a mood disorder.

Owens (2014), the proponent of a report focusing on the insufficient

sleep of students in grades 9 to 12, acknowledges the sleep loss experienced

especially by teenagers as a grave public health issue. It suggests that

adolescents are getting less sleep hours than what is required of them to have.

The technical report emphasizes the serious health risk these adolescents

undergo in exchange of the lack of their sleeping time. Although this sleep

deprivation is caused by different factors, it is made clear that most of them

affect the students whom are in their adolescent years. This issue is then

determined as a chronic problem experienced by teenagers all throughout the

world.

Based on the factors introduced by the report, there are five main

reasons as to why the youth is experiencing sleep deprivation (Rose, 2018).

First, the biological association of the adolescents as having a preference of

evening activities, having a sleeping schedule favored acbangs adolescents.

Second is the influence of electronic media exposure, the excessive use of

gadgets by these teenagers living in the age of technology is disrupting the

timing of sleep and causing the youth to have less nocturnal sleep. Third, the

24
early school start times resulted in these adolescents gaining an average of

less than seven hours of sleep on weekdays which is less than the sufficient

sleep hours as they are students, they have the need to finish school projects

until late at night then wake up early for morning classes. Fourth is caffeine

consumption these students need to stay energized to finish the tasks required

of them results a moderately high number of students report a large intake of

caffeine tend to find sleeping difficult and end up with morning sleepiness.

Lastly, the other factors affecting sleep such as medical or mental issues as the

adolescents’ sleep results in poor quality, having different illnesses that may

cause obstruction to their sleep and consequences to their daytime activities.

According to a journal article by Ming et al. (2011), sleep is crucial part

in humans’ daily lives that it is integrated within us. It is made quite clear that

we would not be able to live without sleeping as the lack of sleeping deteriorates

the health of a human being. Sleep is part of the people’s daily schedule as it

is inevitable that humans must have a good-quality sleep in order for them to

live and perform normally. As an example, it was mentioned that adolescents

with the length of sleep that is less than the required duration of sleep exhibits

poorer performance on their academics as compared to those who sleep within

the required duration. It was determined that sleeping disorders are prevalent

in the younger population and quite considered to be a normal occurrence.

Based on the interpretation of the data gathered from the questionnaires

answered by the participants selected from five New Jersey high school

programs, there is an immense tendency of irregularity towards the subjects’

sleep schedules. Being high school students themselves, they have shown that

their sleep hours are different during school days and weekends. The self-

25
estimated sleep hours of the students during school nights averaged a duration

quite less than the required number of hours that the adolescent needs to have

every day. However, during weekends, their sleep schedule was shifted

significantly which led to having a consequence of a sleep duration that is more

than what is required of them to have on the daily basis. From their reports of

inadequate sleep hours during weekdays, together with their reports of having

an excessive amount of sleep during weekends further supports the fact that

they sleep and wake cycles, shows signs of abnormality which is most likely

caused by their schedule of waking up early hour in the morning in order to

attend school and the late hour they stay up in order for them to do and finish

their school projects and requirements.

The results gathered from the questionnaire showed that there is a great

number of students who suffer from sleep deprivation. This can be assured by

the 80% of these participants as they report sleepiness during school days

(Rose, 2018). Most especially during the morning as they enter their own

educational institutions for early class schedules. The article then continues to

associate the abnormal sleep cycle to the schedule of classes these sleep

deprived students have. It has been deduced that the different schools’ class

hours especially when those class hours start early in the morning have

rendered its own students to have lack of sleep as they enter school.

The schedule of students that are nocturnally active causes them to be

awake in hours late into the night. The said schedule is being practiced by

almost every teenager as they can observe around their environment causing

them to voluntarily have a pattern of self-restricted sleep, this behavior is named

26
as behaviorally induced insufficient sleep syndrome: classified as a sleep

disorder involving a chronic sleep deprivation.

Coping Mechanism

There are various ways of coping with sleep deprivation. As stated in the

article of Cruz et al. (2019), she presented numerous ways on how a person

can cope with this issue. A person who is sleep deprived can drink coffee since

it contains high level of caffeine, take a nap because it can actually recharge

the body, staying active and eating well. Taking short naps is the easiest way

to cope with sleep deprivation. As stated Henna (2018), people take naps to

cope with their personal jobs and responsibilities. After taking a short nap, it

was proven that people feel more energized and alert.

Challenges in Sleep Deprivation

There are different challenges a person can encounter caused by

insufficient sleep. There have been a lot of research studies that have proven

that sleep deprivation increases behavioral lapses which can lead to

microsleeps. As sleep loss continues, lapses can range from 0.5 seconds to

over 10 seconds. A similar study was performed by Banks and Dinges (2005)

wherein healthy adults were kept in a laboratory for 20 days, grouping them to

either 4, 6 or 8 hours of sleep for 14 consecutive nights. Psychomotor vigilance

test performance and working memory performance were tested every 2 hours

throughout each day of the experiment. As a result, it was observed that

participants having only 4 or 6 hours of sleep have cumulative daytime deficits

both in the psychomotor vigilance task and working memory performance, while

participants in the 8 hours condition have none. It was revealed that the

27
behavioral alertness and cognitive performances of participants in both 4 and

6 hours of sleep conditions have been affected after a week.

Additionally, a study conducted by Taheri et al. (2004) has revealed that

sleep deprivation is often associated with larger body mass index (BMI) and

may influence morbidity and mortality. It may also lead to abnormal physiologic

changes, including reduced glucose tolerance, increased blood pressure,

activation of the sympathetic nervous system and reduced leptin levels. The

participants having lower amounts of leptin levels influenced them to increase

their appetite causing them to gain weight and have higher body mass index

(BMI). Lastly, the study of Banks and Dinges (2005) confirmed that chronic

sleep reduction may affect the cardiovascular and immune responses of a

human body. It was shown when the participants have higher risk to coronary

illnesses and influenza virus obtaining less than 7 hours of sleep only.

Insights on Sleep Deprivation

Almost everybody, at some point of their lives, experience sleep

deprivation which is a very common stage where a person does not get the

enough amount of sleep (Henna, 2018). Fox and Mceneaney (2017)

determined the impacts of sleep loss on the daily lives of working mothers.

Findings of the study revealed that loss of sleep has mainly affected the working

mothers in different ways such as loss of attention and focus, decrease in

problem-solving capabilities, regression of their careers, and it prevents them

from learning. These results led to conclude that sleep deprivation following

having children could be a compounding factor in the difficulties with women in

progressing in their careers.

28
 The same results were presented by Alhola and Polo-Kantola (2007)

who studied the impact of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance. Both

total and partial sleep deprivation causes changes in cognitive performance.

First, total sleep deprivation affects the attention and working memory. It also

impairs other functions, such as long-term memory and decision making. Partial

sleep deprivation also demonstrated an influence on attention. However, the

number of studies attaining to its effects on cognitive function is lacking.

Chiang (2013) conducted a study about the effects of sleep on

performance of undergraduate students working in the hospitality industry as to

those who are not working in the industry. The study was designed to analyze

the significant relationship between sleep and two types of performance which

is academic and job performance. Findings of the study showed that

importance of sleep for students and employees in the hospitality field has

gotten less attention compared to other fields. It was also found that students

under this industry are more likely to experience sleep problems, fewer sleeping

hours, lower academic performance and lower job performance than the other

fields. The same results were demonstrated on the study conducted by Patrick

et al. (2017) where sleep deprivation is significantly associated to poor

academic performance and physical dysfunction. Additionally, Trockel et al.

(2010) stated that various variables such as sleep habits, eating, and time

management is associated with sleep deprivation.

Synthesis

Most of the present studies regarding sleep deprivation are more

incorporated to college students and adults that mainly focuses on its effects

on every individual. Although there are studies of sleep deprivation on

29
adolescents and students, the prevalence of this issue in our society is getting

severe. In our study, we try to find out the effects, as well as the possible factors,

that could lead for a student to experience sleep deprivation. Studies on sleep

deprivation showed that lack of sleep has a significant effect to an individual.

However, there are several studies that presented inconsistent results. That is

why we want to conduct this research study so that we will be able to prove that

sleep deprivation can cause harmful effects in an individual’s physical health

and mental state.

30
 CHAPTER 3

METHODS

This chapter discusses the methodology that we will follow for your

study. First, we discussed why we have chosen phenomenology as the

research design to be followed, as well as how the participants are chosen and

sampled. Second, we have presented semi-structed interview as a type of data

source that we will utilize that would help us in gathering information from the

participants. Also, we presented on how to collect data throughout the whole

interview. In addition, to analyze the data being obtained, we have discussed

how to fully understand and transcribe additional data that will answer the

research questions being addressed. Lastly, the values that we will follow, and

ethical considerations that we needed to observe are also presented.

Research Design

In this research, phenomenological design was utilized as it falls under

qualitative research approach This research design focuses mostly on the

experiences in a particular situation or phenomenon and for this study, which

is sleep deprivation.

Qualitative research was conducted by asking questions that are able to

provide meaning in complications. Additionally, it comprises of diverse

perspectives as it transpires from various individuals and practices generating

knowledge from the respective participants (Hesse-Biber, 2010). The

qualitative research contains explanations by certain individuals through their

own experiences, perspectives, and concepts as well as theories from

undergoing these particular happenings (Lune & Berg, 2012). This type of

research can be distinguished apart from quantitative research as the latter

31
includes data that is measured by numerical coefficient and statistics.

Phenomenology is a type of research approach, as stated by Creswell and Poth

(2016), that focuses on the lived experience of an individual in a phenomenon

or concept that then provides meaning for themselves and others. Through this

phenomenological research design, prejudices and concepts prior to the event

that may prevent the study from acquiring the desired experiential basis in

perceiving a phenomenon will be set aside and purely the incident longed for

will be studied (Creswell, 2014).

We, the researchers, then considered phenomenology as the most

appropriate research design for this study as through this, the participants’

insights were much more accessible. In evaluating the experiences surrounding

those AdDU-SHS learners suffering from sleep deprivation, being able to focus

on different individuals and having varied information would be best suited for

the study we are administering. The data gathered was entirely subjective all in

accordance to the participants as the experiences are the important factors in

reaching a deep understanding surrounding sleep deprivation. Through this,

this study aimed to promote a further understanding of the interaction of the

variables with one another thus creating a certain outcome on a learner’s

overall performance in academics.

Research Participants

In conducting an in-depth examination of qualitative studies, the most

common sample sizes used are 10, 20, 30 and 40 (Mason, 2010). Since

phenomenology was applied in our study, it only uses small sample sizes, often

10 or less, the researchers decided to select 10 participants in order to gather

enough data and information needed for our study.

32
 We selected 10 participants from the grade 12 learners of AdDU-SHS to

answer questions that are according to the concept of the study. Purposive

sampling method was used in order to gather the necessary data from the

participants. According to Palys (2008), this is a sampling technique wherein it

involves the selection of participants that meet a certain criterion. In our study,

the participants underwent less than 5 hours of sleep often. It was experienced

during the first semester of school year 2019-2020. The criteria was followed to

ensure that all questions were answered properly and completely.

Role of the Researcher

We, the seven researchers conducted a research study. Each

researcher had different tasks and jobs to do throughout the whole process of

the research. As the researchers, we choose specific participants who are

qualified with the criteria we have set. After which, the interview was conducted

and the participants have to answer all the qualitative questions we prepared

for them. All the statements that were collected served as records that were

translated and analyzed by us, the researchers. After the data analysis, we

formed necessary discussions about the whole study.

Data Source

The subjective data utilized for this study were from the respondents

who fit the criteria where they are Grade 12 learners of AdDU-SHS 2019-2020

and experiencing sleep deprivation during the first semester of that school year.

According to Salkind (2010), there are two types of data sources, primary and

secondary sources. Primary data are first-hand data obtained directly from a

primary source by a researcher through surveys, interviews, or experiments

(Glen, 2018). On the other hand, according to Surbhi (2017), secondary data

33
are second-hand information that has been already processed, gathered, and

documented by a researcher. These are information gathered through multiple

sources, such as censuses, public journals, inner organization documents,

reports, books, journal articles, websites and so on, that is easily accessible. In

this study, we intend to use qualitative interview, also called as intensive or in-

depth interview.

Intensive or in-depth interview is one of the common methods used in

primary source for qualitative interviews which our group intends to use for this

study. Semi-structured interview was suitable in this type of study that we

conducted, the researchers had a particular focus about what we would like to

obtain from the respondents. Moreover, semi structured interview utilizes a set

of topics or guide questions that the interviewer wants to obtain throughout the

interview (De Carlo, 2018). Furthermore, throughout the interview process, the

researchers asked additional or follow up questions that were open-ended and

were not asked in an exact order on every participant.

Data Collection

Methods of qualitative research enable the development of

understanding on people’s experiences; they allow us to know how judgements

are created and provide us detailed insights (Barett & Twycross, 2018).

According to Austin and Sutton (2015), to arrive with these insights, qualitative

research involves data that are essential in generating themes and findings

through analysis. Data collection is one of the most important part of a research.

It is the process of gathering and measuring information on topics of interest, in

a detailed and systematic manner in order to answer the research questions,

hypothesis testing, and evaluate outcomes (Kabir, 2016).

34
 In conducting qualitative data collection, we first identified the possible

participants of our study. Students who normally take less than five hours of

sleep were considered. These identified participants were briefed about the

research and its purpose and we informed them that their participation is

voluntary which gave them the choice to be part of the study or not.

The study utilized semi-structured interview through an outline and

questions created by the researchers. These questions were made basing off

the research questions that would state the areas under this study. This type of

interview was executed in order to collect the necessary data needed in a

conversational manner and allowed the interviewee to respond in such a way

that there was no rigid adherence making the process more flexible and casual

(Adhab & Anozie, 2017). The participants were interviewed individually to

extract a more in-depth information on their experiences and give the

researchers a certain degree of freedom to probe the interviewee to elaborate

and introduce a new line of inquiry. The data collected from the interviews were

recorded through a video or audio recording and were written in notes to fully

and accurately analyze the data.

During the course of the study, large amounts of data may accumulate

and it may be stored in many ways such as original hard paper copies,

computer files or photocopies (Lin, 2009). The researchers of this study kept

copies of the data and were backed up. We also created an electronic copy of

the data which was stored with a length time ranging from 3 to 5 years. The

data shall be protected for possible future use in verifying the findings of the

research or reanalysing.

35
Data Analysis

In accomplishing an effective analysis, we must fully understand and

place ourselves in the other person’s perspective. One way is transcribing the

audio recordings to let us, the researchers, gone through the transcript carefully

with all details presented. Transcribing is important for the evaluation of the

information gathered and help the researchers in further understanding the

answers of their respondents. The research questions were the key to

categorizing and transcribing the results. In analyzing data, we observed

common themes and patterns or differences that can emerge in the data. In

addition to this, we categorized the said data that suggested if additional data

was needed or if changes should be done on the questions. The researchers

then used thematic analysis for interpretation, which was defined by Clarke and

Braun (2014) as a method for identifying and interpreting patterns of meaning

across qualitative data. Lastly, the said analyzed data provided answers to the

research questions being addressed.

Trustworthiness of the Study

This section shows the different values that we, the researchers have

considered to guarantee the trustworthiness of the study. Trustworthiness

refers to the degree of confidence in data and interpretation to assure the

quality of a study (Polit & Beck, 2014). As stated by Amankwaa (2016),

researchers should establish the necessary protocols for a study to be

considered worthy of consideration by future readers. According to Lincoln and

Guba (1985), in determining the trustworthiness of a study, it requires four

components which are: credibility, transferability, dependability and

36
confirmability. In our study, trustworthiness can be observed through applying

the value of honesty in the collection and analysis of data.

Credibility. According to Polit and Beck (2014), credibility is the

confidence in truth of the data that will be gathered. This can be established

when researchers clearly connect the research study’s results to reality in order

to show factuality on all data that will be collected. In our study, credibility was

applied through gathering authoritative sources that were used in making the

methodology of the study. In this case, it made our study more reliable and

efficient. Moreover, this was observed through triangulation wherein the

research participants were asked the same set of questions. Furthermore, it

was observed with prolong engagements to these research participants and

persistent observation about the study being conducted.

Transferability. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985), transferability

refers to the application of the findings in other contexts and settings. This can

be established when researchers provided the readers evidence that the

research study’s findings can be applied to other contexts, situations, and

populations. This also means that future readers can generalize the results of

the study to their own context (Universal Teacher, 2019). In our study,

transferability was applied by providing a clear and concise description of the

study, as well as the different experiences of the participants to make it possible

for the readers to decide how the findings may transfer.

Dependability. According to Lincoln and Guba (1985), dependability

refers to the way in which all data are consistent and repeatable by future

researchers. This can be established when researchers aim to verify that all

findings are conformable with the data that will be collected. In other words,

37
researchers should be consistent in order to have dependable results. In our

study, dependability was applied through audit trail wherein it was conducted

to strengthen the accuracy and validity of data. This was also observed by

having in-depth step by step process on the research activities that influenced

us, the researchers on the analysis of data.

Confirmability. According to Statistics Solutions (2019), confirmability

refers to the level of neutrality in the findings of the study. This can be

established when the results are mainly based on the participants’ responses,

narratives and experiences rather than potential personal biases by the

researchers. In our study, confirmability was applied by transcribing data

coming from our participants objectively. Furthermore, our data gathered and

interpretations were presented without any bias. Lastly, audit trail was applied

wherein there was transparency of the research processes used applied from

the start of the study to the analysis of data.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical considerations is the section of our study wherein we present the

different protocols that are needed to be observed throughout the whole

process. It helps in forming a major and important element in a research

(Chetty, 2016). It is necessary to make these considerations and standards as

it can help in achieving a clean and polished output from the whole conduction

of the research. It safeguards not only the research participants but also us, the

researchers as well as it impounds the agreements that everyone will be liable

of. As stated by Resnik (2015), ethics are norms for conduct that decides

between the appropriate and not appropriate behavior/response.

38
 Confidentiality. Confidential communications were protected such as

personal records (Resnik, 2015). Whatever statements that are said by the

research participants will remain confidential and will only be used plainly for

the research. Also, instances that the participants would ask us not to include

a certain statement in the research paper was respected and followed.

Anonymity. It was said in an article by Lavrakas (2008) that according

to the American Heritage Dictionary, anonymity is the state or a circumstance

of being unknown and not being acknowledged. The full names and identities

of the research participants were not revealed before, during, and after the

whole process. This ethical consideration is for their own protection of the

participants considering that they shared personal information and data.

Voluntary Participation. It refers to the participants’ exercise of free will

in choosing to be part of a research study or not (Lavrakas, 2008). The

participants should be completely willing in participating with the whole

research. They were not forced or feel obliged to answer our questions. Also,

this ethical standard allowed the participants to withdraw from participating

anytime he/she wants.

Informed Consent. As stated by Kowalczyk (n.d.), this provides

complete and comprehensive data for the participants’ to so that they can make

a rational settlement. This ethical consideration guaranteed that the participant

was informed that he/she was involved in a research study. Also, we were

tasked to clarify everything to the participants, including the purpose of the

whole study and the like. We were also obliged to answer all the questions of

the participants whenever they have clarifications.

39
 Honesty and Objectivity. According to Resnik (2015), honesty should

be strived in all scientific communication and process. All statements by the

research participants were presented in the research paper. As the

researchers, we set aside biases and sticked to whatever was said by the

participant. The statements that we put and encode in the paper were precise

and parallel to the answer of the participants.

40
 CHAPTER 4

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

The purpose of this chapter is to present the data collected from the

participants through an interview. It shows the tabular representation and

interpretation of the common major themes and core ideas. The corresponding

themes will be discussed and evaluated. In addition, the responses gathered from

the participants will be used to support the themes.

Different experiences of the students with regards to sleep

deprivation.

Grade 12 AdDU-SHS learners that took part in our study were presented

questions that were considered essential for the study being conducted. Once the

interview was done, we have evaluated and interpreted the raw data gathered that

led us to formulate the summary of the essential responses that answered each

research questions of the study.

The first question is “What are the different experience of the students with

regards to sleep deprivation?” Through this question, we gained insights and

opinions regarding the life experiences of learners who are sleep deprived. Thus,

being able to assess whether there were different implications on learners who

have lack of sleep.

Through analyzing the accumulated data, we identified various major

themes that contributed and helped us in answering the research question. The

formulated themes include the following:

41
 Major Themes Core ideas / Responses

The learners face academic challenges  Accomplishing their unfinished

academic tasks

 Opting to do academic tasks

rather than to sleep.

 Academic pressure due to being

unproductive

The learners experienced different  Lack of sleep that contributes to

physiological problems feeling exhausted.

 Poor sleep resulting to

experience sleepiness in

school.

 Low energy level caused by

sleeping late.

The learners experienced mental  Thinking too much about school

disturbance brought by sleep that instill anxiousness.

deprivation  Experiences mood swings due

to not feeling sleepy.

 Forcing negative thoughts to

make them sleep.

Table 1. Different experiences of the students with regards to sleep deprivation.

The learners face academic challenges. Academic responsibilities could

lead to sleep deprivation. Students tend to sacrifice their time due to heavy

42
workloads of task in school. The responses gathered in this research question

indicated learners who are academically challenge due to responsibilities,

academic pressure, and learners choose to do school works than to sleep.

Below are the transcript supporting this theme.

Responsibilities such as academic tasks to finish also played a huge factor

that leads to sleep deprivation, Participant 6 stated that:

“Usually the things that keep me up at night are academic

responsibilities. But, most of the time, it’s the idea that i have a lot of
things to do that keeps me up … and yet I still haven’t done any
progress. It’s because of the stress and the pressure l feel.”

[Usually, the things that keep me up at night are academic

responsibilities. But, most of the time, it is the idea that I have a lot of

things to do that keeps me up although I haven’t done any progress.

It’s because of the stress and the pressure I feel.]

Several respondents shared a different view upon their experiences in

sleep deprivation. Another factor experienced by the students is when they

would rather opt to do academic task than sleeping. Participant 3 stated:

“Pwede mong gawin yung mga things na kailangan mo pa gawin.

Example kay maggawa ng assignments then magstudy kay ito man
din na time na mag gana ang mind ko.”

[You can do all the things that you still need to work on. For

example, making assignments, as well as studying because this is the

time that your mind works best.]

Furthermore, it was also affirmed by Participant 4’s response

“…you can accomplish more because you have more time at night
so you can use that time to do things that you need to do.”

[…you can accomplish more tasks because you have a lot of time

at night what are needed to be done.]

43
 Due to feeling unproductive, students tend to feel academic pressure and

unproductive. Participant 4 experienced this factor, stating that:

“I’m also occupied with lots of things like my homework, my

schoolwork, all the group works.”

The learners experienced different physiological problems. The

paticipants' answers to the research questions were related to the physiological

problems. There are certain experience in which they feel when they lack sleep.

An example of this physiological problems is tiredness, sleepiness, and low

energy, which was experienced by respondents. Below is an evidence justifying

this theme:

Students feel fatigue in school when they lack sleep. As responded by the

Participant 6:

“When I can’t fall asleep, most of the time I feel like tired and

restless.”

Low energy level is also a factor experience by students caused by the

poor sleeping. Participant 7 stated that:

“Oo, katulugon, luya promise”

[Yes, I feel sleepy and tired.]

Furthermore, this is affirmed by participant 3 stating that:

“Kapoy. Like physically gud, wala ako masiyadong energy kay

matagal man ako matulog.”

[It is tiring. I feel tired physically since I don’t have that much of

energy because I slept late.]

This is also supported by the response of participant 3:

“Then pagkabukas kay kulang ang aking energy magpasok sa

school kay kulang man tulog ko.”

44
 [The following day, I do not have much energy at school.]

Lastly, the students also experienced tiredness when they are not able to

sleep properly. This is supported by respondent 6:

“When I cannot fall asleep, most of the time I feel tired and

restless.”

The learners experienced mental disturbance brought by sleep

deprivation. Sleep deprivation can have an adverse impact to the mental and

psychological stability of a person. Lack of sleep is linked on having emotionally

unstable. Several participants experienced feeling anxious, mood swings, and

thinking negative thoughts. Presented below are the transcript supporting this

theme:

Participant 3 stated that:

“Minsan kay anxious ako kay maisip ko kay pagka tomorrow

maaga pa ako maggising tapos hindi pa ako maka tulog.”

[Sometimes I feel anxious because I know that I still need to

wake up early. However, I still cannot fall asleep.]
The same response was also stated by participant 5:

“Uh, I actually think about uh many things. So I become anxious,

that’s why I think about a lot of things.”
[I actually think about a lot of things. So I tend to become anxious

and think about a lot of things.]

Emotional stability can also be affected with the lack of sleep that was being

experienced by participant 7:

“Ano yang mainis ako kay kase hindi ako maka tulog.”

[I feel irritated whenever I cannot fall asleep.]

Lack of sleep can be linked to thinking negatively which was experienced

by participant 5:

45
 “I think of sad objects so that I can cry myself to sleep.”

“I feel sad pero it’s not sad na sad. It’s like forceful lang na sad

para makatulog ako.”

[I force myself to feel sad because this makes me fall asleep.]

The Challenges that Sleep-Deprived students face. The second

research question is “What are the challenges that sleep deprived students

face?” Through this question, we were able to extract the challenges that the

respondents experience during sleep deprivation. After in-depth analysis, the

data was clustered to themes which is shown in Table 2. This table shows the

distribution of the respondents’ answers to their respective major themes which

includes the corresponding core ideas.

Major Themes Core Ideas/Responses

The learners face different health  Experiences of headache and

problems. nausea

 Enduring uncontrollable fatigue

and morning drowsiness

 Shortened attention span and

unable to focus.

The learners develop emotional  Displaying a pessimistic or

instability. negative personality

 Becoming more stressed and

irritable

 The learners easily get moody

46
 The learners deal with time-  Procrastination in working for

management issues. academic responsibilities.

 Waking up and arriving late in

school

 Disrupting daily

routine/schedule

The learners display low academic  Less productive and unable to

performance. focus during class hours

 Contributing in group works at

bare minimum

 Inability to do tasks concerning

academics

Table 2. The Challenges that Sleep-Deprived students face.

The learners face different health problems. Most of the students go

through the same experience regarding the experience of different illnesses.

They all undergo some sort of bodily discomfort which challenges their standard

way of living, as the illness is difficult to adapt to. This theme discusses the

students’ responses in their respective interviews in accordance to facing

different health problems; one of this is experiencing headaches and nausea,

such as the response of participant 4:

“I feel nauseous like in my head I feel like I lack oxygen…”

[I feel nauseous and I feel like I lack oxygen in my head]

There are also responses by participants 6, 9, and 10 respectively, which

support the previous statement:

“I think major ones wala naman pero siguro the usual lang like,
headaches…”

47
 [I think major ones (illnesses) aren’t present but only the usual

like headache.]

“There were a lot of times na maheadache ako tas like minsan, I

feel nausea.”

[There were a lot of time I got headaches and sometimes I

would feel nausea.]

“For me, mag labad akong ulo tapos murag ko kanang gi

lagnat.”

[My head aches and I feel I’d get a fever.]

Another one of the illnesses that the respondents experience is enduring

uncontrollable fatigue and morning drowsiness, which is the answer of

participant 1:

“It’s just starts to collapse even if I fight against it, I can’t really
control it and I just end up blacking out.”
[It (my body) just starts to collapse even if I fight against it, I can’t

really control it and I just end up blacking out.]

“Well, my body feels heavier like I can’t move as much. I can’t be

as active as I want to be.”

[Well, my body feels heavier like I can’t move as much. I can’t be

as active as I want to be.]

Statements supporting the previous response by participants 2, 7, and 9:

“…kina umagahan niyan is I feel tired.”

[In the morning, I feel so tired.]

“…katulogon, luya, promise.”

[I feel sleepy and weak.]

48
 Finally, the learners experience the challenge of sleep deprivation from

having a shortened attention span and the inability to focus like the response

of participant 8:

“Shorter attention span siguro and less focus sa ana na task.”

[Maybe a shorter attention span and less focus on the various

tasks.]

The statement previously mentioned is then supported by responses

from participants 3 and 6:

“…wala ako sa mind ko.”

[I do not have the right mind (to talk to them).]

“Ano, in the morning kay mawala aking presence of mind.”

[In the morning, I do not have the presence of mind.]

“Say for example there’s a lecture going on I could not focus

because I would want to sleep…”

[Say for example there’s a lecture going on I could not focus

because I would want to sleep.]

The learners develop emotional instability. Experiencing sleep

deprivation brought out an effect in the respondents’ emotional health.

Unfortunately, it is of negative nature, and all of the learners undergo this

emotional imbalance first-hand. This theme discusses the results of the

learners’ respective interviews in the aspect of their emotional instability during

the time they deprive themselves of sleep. The actualization of their sleep loss

which makes them emotionally unstable is observed such as displaying a

pessimistic or negative personality like the answer of participant 10:

“…I want to sleep than to interact with others.”

49
 […I just want to sleep rather than to interact with others.]

This is further supported by a few statements from participant 6:

“…it’s the time of the day where I hate myself the most…”

[…it’s the time of the day where I hate myself the most…]

“…it’s a regret that comes by the morning.”

[…it’s a regret that comes by the morning.]

“…it’s that you just feel like dying I don’t know how to explain that.”

[…you feel like dying I don’t know how to explain that.]

Another observation of being emotionally unstable is becoming more

stressed and irritable such as the response of respondent 1:

“Well, I do say I’m quite more irritable…”

[Well, I do say I’m quite more irritable…]

The observation is provided with supporting statements from the

responses of participants 6, 7, and 9 respectively:

“If I don’t have any sleep I become more stressed”

[If I don’t have any sleep I become more stressed]

“Yang ano, madali ako maiirita.”

[I get irritated very easily.]

“Medj ano ako like, madali lang ako maiirita.”

[Well, I get irritated easily.]

The learners are emotionally imbalance because they easily get moody

such as the response of participant 2:

“I think I get moody…”

[I think I get moody…]

50
 This response is then supported by the statements of participants 1, 4, and

6:

“If I lack sleep, I’m more impatient and it’s…I don’t understand
people well when I’m tired.”
[If I lack sleep, I’m more impatient and I don’t understand people

as well when I’m tired.]

“I tend to like push others away…”

[I tend to push others away…]

“I’m impatient. I’m short-tempered.”

[I am impatient. I’m short-tempered.]

The learners deal with time-management issues. Sleeping late

disrupts the respondents’ daily routine which causes time-management issues

to arise for these sleep-deprived learners. Time-management as a challenge

results in the respondents’ inability to complete tasks of utmost importance on

time. This can be said for their tardiness and procrastinating personality in a lot

of aspects of their daily life. This theme discusses the complications the

respondents have when managing their time; based on their responses,

procrastination in working for academic responsibilities is one of the catalysts

like that of participant 3:

“Yung mga ano dapat gawin sa morning or afternoon kay

ginagawa ko nalang sa midnight…”

[All the academic responsibilities that I should be doing during the

morning or afternoon, I just do it at midnight instead…]

Statements from other respondentssupport the previous statement like that

of participant 7 and 6’s responses:

“...naga procrastinate nalang ako.”

[…I procrastinate instead.]

51
 “…say for example I would want to do this research chapter tonight
then because I was sleep deprived the night before I wouldn’t be
able to do it kasi tulugan ko nalang.”

[…say for example I would want to do this research chapter tonight

then because I was sleep deprived the night before I wouldn’t be able

to do it because I’ll sleep on it instead.]

“…yung mga gagawin ko sana di ko na tuloy magawa.”

[…those things I was supposed to do, I can’t do them anymore]

The learners have difficulty in managing their time causing them to wake

up and arrive late in school, just like the response of participant 4:

“…most of the time I’m late because of sleep deprivation.”

[…most of the time I’m late because of sleep deprivation.]
This is then supported by the statements of the participants 3 and 9:

“Tapos maggigising pa ng maaga like 6 am or 5 tapos gusto mo pa

matulog.”

[Then, there is the need to wake up early however I would still want

to sleep.]

“Minsan kay matagal din ako nagagising…kay matagal man

natulog mga 1 AM na.”

[Sometimes, I also wake up late…because I slept late at 1 AM

already.]

“I sleep instead of doing my assignments.”

[I sleep instead of doing my assignments.]

Complications in time-management can disrupt one’s daily schedule like

the answer of participant 8:

“Pero pag-abot ana ug mga 6 or 7 PM kay very tired na jud ko.”

[But once it hits 6 or 7 PM I get very tired.]

52
 The participants’ answers help support the previous statement such as

the responses of participants 6, 1, and 2 respectively:

“It messes up my schedules.”

[It messes up my schedules.]
“…it really hold me back from the things I usually do and the things
I want to do.”
[…it really holds me back from the things I usually do and the

things I want to do]

“Sometimes, yes…”

[Sometimes, yes (affecting routine)]

The learners display low academic performance. Having 3-5 hours

of sleep everyday caused the students to have a lower academic performance.

It becomes a challenge towards the learners who are having a difficult time to

deal with their academic responsibilities. The outcome of the responses to the

interview question which are concerned with the learners’ academic

performance is discussed in this table as a major theme. The support for the

results of this major theme concerning less productivity and inability to focus

during class hours is evident in the answer by participant 2:

“…ang focus ko sa class ay hindi direct saaming lesson but more

on about how can I get sleep without interfering my works at school.”
[…my focus in class is not directed on our lesson but more on

about how can I get sleep without interfering my works at school.]

This is then further supported by the statements from the responses of the

following participants 1 and 3:

“…the energy I spend trying to stay up really distracts me from

listening to the lessons that the teacher is discussing in front.”
[…the energy I spend trying to stay up really distracts me from

listening to the lessons that the teacher is discussing in front.]

53
 “…hindi ka makafocus sa subject nay un tapos minsan hindi ko
nalang rin maintindihan.”
[…I can’t focus on that subject and sometimes I can’t understand

the lessons very well.]

“…sleeplessness is murag ano, grabe kayo siya maka affect sa

akong focus sa isa ka object.”

[…sleeplessness gravely affects my focus on one thing.]

Low academic performance can be observed from contributing in group

works at bare minimum like the response of participantt 5:

“…not being able to help my groupmates.”

[…not being able to help my groupmates.]

The results show that low academic performance is affected by the

inability to do tasks concerning academics like that of participant 7’s answer:

“Nasanay na rin yung body ko na matulog nalang sa klase so

hindi na ako productive talaga.”

[My body is trained to sleep during class so I’m really not

productive anymore.]

The following statements provide support for the aforementioned

statement which are from the responses of participant 5:

“…minsan makatulog nalang rin ako sa class so I can’t really

listen to the lessons being discussed.”
[…sometimes I tend to fall asleep in class so I can’t really listen

to the lessons being discussed.]

“…is hard for me to cope with that lesson knowing na nakatulog

ako.”
[…is hard for me to cope with that lesson knowing that I fell asleep

during the discussion.]

“…so minsan maisip ko hindi nalang magpasok sa school.”

54
 […I can think of not going to school.]

Students’ insights towards sleep deprivation. The third question is

“What are the students’ insights towards sleep deprivation?” Through this

research question, we, the researchers were able to gather different opinions

towards sleep deprivation. As a result, it can be assessed that some

participants find it difficult to deal with sleep deprivation, while others showed

positive outlook in dealing with it.

Being able to successfully analyze the given data, we, the researchers

were able to identify 4 major themes coming from the responses of the

participants that can contribute in answering the research question. The

specified themes identified include the following:

Major Concepts Core ideas/ Responses

Students have varied coping  Students use technology in

mechanisms towards sleep dealing with short amount of

deprivation sleep

 Students believe that taking

short naps is a way in dealing

with lack of sleep

 Students consider proper diet

in order to deal with the

negative effects of sleep

deprivation

Sleep is a basic human necessity  Students have realized that

for students. having at least 8 hours of

55
 sleep is essential to the

human body

 Sleep gives more energy to

students

 Students consider sleep as a

time for their body to rest

Students recognized the evident  Students believe that lack of

effects of sleep deprivation in their sleep can lower their immune

whole being. system

 Students experience more

fatigue without proper amount

of sleep

 Students say that they are

more prone to headaches

Students’ various perception  Some students believe find it

towards sleep deprivation. difficult to deal with sleep

deprivation because they are

used in sleeping early at night

 Some students believe that

they do not find it difficult in

dealing with sleep deprivation

by accepting that they are

more productive at night

Some students believe that

they do not find it difficult to

56
 deal with sleep deprivation

because they are they allot to

recover from sleeping late

Table 3. Students’ insights towards sleep deprivation.

Students have varied coping mechanisms towards sleep

deprivation. Sleep deprivation is harmful in nature. That is why in dealing with

the negative effects of insufficient amount of sleep, different coping

mechanisms must be established. In relation to this, the participants were able

to discuss their own routine and practices to help them cope.

One of the coping mechanisms is using technology. Participant 6 shared:

“Uh, I resort to social media, I guess. YouTube and Facebook

sometimes help…”

[For me, I use social media applications such Youtube and

Facebook because it help…]

On the other hand, participant 2 emphasized that another way is through

taking short naps.

“I take naps at school but not really a long nap because

sometimes ma interrupt you will feel exhausted and I take short
naps lang.”

[I take naps at school but not really a long nap because

sometimes I get interrupted that is why having short naps is

already acceptable.]

Participant 2 also suggested that one way of coping with sleep

deprivation is having a proper diet.

“I suggest that they should have proper diet and proper dietary
structure and develop a routine that would help them balance the
negative effects of sleep deprivation.”

57
 [I suggest that they should have proper diet and proper dietary

structure, as well as developing a routine that would help them

deal with the negative effects of sleep deprivation.]

Sleep is a basic necessity for students. Having a sufficient amount of

sleep is a basic need to an individual. As we all know, the average number of

hours of sleep is at least 8 hours. If this will not be practiced, then there would

be several negative effects on human health. In relation to this, the participants

were able to give insights on how important sleep is in dealing with sleep

deprivation.

Participant 3 stated that one of the importance of sleep is for physical

growth. She also emphasized that sleeping is a way to regain energy.

“Important talaga masiyado kay feel ko yan ang reason na kaya

ako putot gud kay kulang sa tulog. Then para makagain ka ng
energy ulit.”
[It is essential because this is maybe the reason why I am short

because of an insufficient amount of sleep. Additionally, this can

regain your energy.]

Participant 6 also shares the same perspective. He stated:

“…I’m a teenager and I need sleep because I need all the energy
throughout the whole day. Because I’m a student nga and it takes
a lot of energy to-to get through the entire day. So yeah, it’s very
important for me and it’s a necessity.”

[…I’m a teenager and I need sleep because I need all the energy

throughout the whole day. Because I’m a student like I said, and it

takes a lot of energy to-to get through the entire day. So yeah, it’s

very important for me and it’s a necessity.]

Participant 1 also have the same opinion. She stated:

“Well I guess sleep is basically like the recharging state that we

have everytime like after a long days of work. So it’s really a crucial

58
 part in start in the next day. So it’s basically a reput you so type of
situation, if you don’t get enough sleep you’re gonna suffer the next
day and vice versa.”

[Well I guess sleep is basically like the recharging state that we

have everytime like after a long days of work. So it’s really a crucial

part in start in the next day. So its basically a reput you so type of

situation, if you dont get enough sleep you’re going to suffer the

next day and vice versa.]

Additionally, participant 6 also explained that sleep is essential to feel

relax after a long day at school:

“Uhm, it’s very important to me cause it’s the only time that I feel
relaxed especially after a heavy load of work in school. Sleep if like
my way of rewarding myself for doing a good job in school.”
[It is really important to me because it is the only time I feel relaxed

after having a long day at school. Sleep is also a way to reward

myself in doing good in school.]

Participant 7 also discusses that having sufficient amount of sleep gives

an individual to be more academically competent. With this, a person can be

more attentive in class. He stated:

“… mas may gana ka sa lahat. Parang imbes na matulog ka lang

sa klase kay making ka pero hindi ka man makakinig kay
katulugon”

“… you have more energy and you become more productive.

Instead that you sleep in class, you can listen more, but sometimes

we cannot listen because we lack sleep.”

Moreover, participant 2 considers sleep a time for one’s body to rest. She

stated:

“…it’s also a time for our body system to rest kasi by that time jan
tayo nagpapahinga at walang ginagawa na ang system ng ating
body is naga repair ng sarili nya for other day.”

59
 “… it’s also a time for our body system to rest because by this time,

it is the time that we rest and to get our body system rested for the

other day.”

Students recognized the evident effects of sleep deprivation in their

whole being

Due to being sleep deprived, several changes have been noticed by the

people who this. These changes are both physical and mental changes. In

relation to experienced our study, the students were able to realize that lack of

sleep can have an effect in their whole well-being.

Participant 4 stated that sleep deprivation causes negative health

implications. He stated:

“I think it really affects the physical well-being since as I said before

it affects the immune system.”

[I think it really affects the physical well-being since as I said before

it affects the immune system.]

Additionally, participant 5 shares his experience that lack of sleep

affects his physical well-being by getting easily tired.

“So example in PE, as I, napansin ko lang sa akin na parang yung

parang grade 10 ako, nagatulog pa man ako ng early nun so like
active pa gud ako sa PE. Pero ngayon like, konting galaw ko lang,
mabilis na akong mapagod.”

[During PE, I observe that during grade 10, I still sleep early; that is why

I am still active. However, during this time, I can get easily tired just

with minor activities only.]

On the other hand, participant 4 shares that lack of sleep affects her

mental well-being by being easily irritated. She stated:

“And mentally, it also like tends to make you more irritable.”

60
 [And mentally, it also like tends to make you more irritable.]

Moreover, participant 3 discovers that lack of sleep can affect one’s

focus and attention. She stated:

“Makaaffect siya mentally kay mawala ka sa focus and attention lalo na

sa class…”

[Lack of sleep can affect mental well-being by having less focus and

attention, especially in class...]

Participant 1 also discusses that it can affect one’s mental capacity.

He stated:

“For mental well-being I really think it can deteriorate your.. your

ano your mental capacity because as we all know sleeping. the
brain also needs rest in order to recharge itself and in order to
comprehend information so a lack of sleep would really get in the
way of that.”

[For mental well-being, I really think it can deteriorate your mental

capacity because as we all know, the brain also needs rest in order

to recharge itself and in order to comprehend informations. That’s

why lack of sleep would really get in the way of that.]

Students’ various perception towards sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation has been prominent lately, it has been experienced by

a lot of people nowadays. These people who undergo sleep deprivation are

different, thus their insights towards this issue vary as well. In relation to our

study, the participants showed different opinions on how they face the issue.

Participant 2 stated that it is difficult for her to deal with sleep deprivation

because there are more responsibilities to do during Grade 12. She stated:

“Yes! Especially sa grade 12 schedule ngayon ahm they are things

that you have to do but you have little time to do things.”

61
 [Yes, especially on grade 12 schedule now because they are

things that you have to do but you have little time to do things.]

Additionally, participant 10 shares that it is difficult for her because she

is not used in sleeping late. She stated:

“Yes, I really find it hard because, I’ m used to sleeping 8 hours in

junior high school, but this time, mga anon a lang. 5 to 6 and still
not good for my health.”

[Yes, I really find it hard because I’ m used to sleeping 8 hours in

junior high school, but this time, I get only 5 to 6 hours of sleep and

it’s not good for my health.]

On the other hand, participant 3 states that it is not difficult to deal with

sleep deprivation because it can be used to be more productive at night. She

stated:

“Hindi man. Ginadjust ko nalang, ginaaccept ko nalang na mas

productive ako sa gabi. So matulog nalang ako pagkamorning, then
gawin ko mga kailangan gawin sa gabi.”

[It is not difficult to deal with sleep deprivation because I just accept

the fact that I am more productive at night. That is why I will just

sleep in the morning so that I can do all my responsibilities at night.]

Participant 5 also shares the same insight. He stated:

“For me at first yes, it’s okay at first. I mean it’s not okay at first, but
actually as you get used to it, for me lang ha, actually it gives more
benefits to me so I can actually do stuff at house than at school.
Just like example, sa vacant time, I’ll just sleep, so I’m not efficient.
However, if I am at the house, I can actually do more rather than
here.”

[Personally, at first, it is not. However, as you get used to it, it can

give more benefits to me such as doing things at home than at

school. For example, during vacant time in school, I will just sleep

making me inefficient. However, if I am at home, I can do more.]

62
 Lastly, participant 8 emphasized that dealing with sleep deprivation is

not difficult because one can allot a time to recover from sleeping late.

“For me, I think dili man siya lisod kay sometimes I allot time para

maka bawi jud og sleep. Example, weekends I sleep walay alarm,

dili mag wake up. I just let my body wake up on its own.”

[For me, I think it is not hard because we could allot a time to sleep.

For example, during weekends, I sleep without alarm and I do not

wake up. I just let my body wake up on its own.]

63
 CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS

In this chapter, results from the research questions are presented.

Findings and results from the research questions are discussed and linked to

each other. The discussion of the results are first presented individually and

finally discussed and concluded in the conclusion part.

Different experiences of the students with regards to sleep deprivation.

The inquiry on “What are the different experiences of Grade 12 learners’

with regards to sleep deprivation” is answered by four major themes elaborated

below.

The learners experience different physiological effects. Results from

the interview show that the students had experiences of different physiological

problems caused by sleep deprivation. According to Pressman (1997),

experiencing lack of sleep could cause effects on the different aspects of a

person’ life such as cognitive, behavioral, physiological and emotional

measures. Results of the study conducted by Binks (1999) showed that bad

mood, utter sleepiness, exhaustion and decreased level of attentiveness are

manifested by a sleep deprived person. According to the study, people who

doesn’t get the enough amount of sleep has caused the experience of

hallucinations and paranoia. In addition, the study by Goh et al. (2001)

presumed that the harmful effects of sleep deprivation on performance are

apparently related to 7 hours of sleep loss. This suggests that the longer the

duration of sleep deprivation, the more risk of developing physiological

problems. Moreover, sleep deprivation was found to cause mild neurological

signs like near-sightedness, involuntary quivering movement, slurred and slow

64
speech, and inactive corneal reflexes (Kloss, 2017). Also, it was observed that

total sleep deprivation caused changes in a person’s heart and respiratory rate,

blood pressure, as well as in body temperature.

The learners experience mental disturbance brought by

sleep deprivation. The responses belonging to this theme show the emotional

disturbances experienced by the learners when they have lesser amount of

sleep. These experiences implies that having lesser amount of sleep could lead

to disturbance of moods and emotions that are characterized by being short

tempered, anxious, and sudden mood swing. Based form the study of Yoo et

al. (2007), sleep deprivation creates a deficiency in hippocampal activity while

the memory encoding is occurring that leads to a worse retention,

compromising the neural and behavioral proficiency. Hippocampus is a part of

the brain that stores new memories. However, their ability to retain new

information declines when the hippocampus is affected from sleep deprivation

as it causes to fill up the storage capacity of it that prevents new information to

be stored (Tamminen 2016).

Studies have shown that one sleepless night aggravate mood swing,

such as irritability, depression, and anxiety, and can result to disorientation,

weariness, and loss of stamina (Saghir et al., 2018). Moreover, the literature

states that moods, emotions and behaviors can also be affected by sleep

deprivation. According to Snyder (2003), a person who experiences sleep

deprivation may develop weakened problem solving skills and may lessen the

ability to be innovative in creating solutions to the problem. Furthermore, results

from a study presented that lack of sleep has substantial effect on mood and

cognitive performance in humans. The same results were shown by Alhola and

65
Polo-Kantola (2007) who suggested that total and partial sleep deprivation

causes changes cognitive ability. It also impairs other functions such as long-

term memory and decision making.

The learners face academic challenges. Responses form the

interview show that students who are academically challenged are sleep

deprived. Learners who are academically challenged were described as those

who experiences pressure from school, overload of responsibilities such as

school activities and heavy workloads. According to Ming et al. (2011), sleep is

part of the people’s daily schedule as it is inevitable that humans must have a

good-quality sleep in order for them to live and perform normally. Results of the

study on high school students suggests that the self-estimated sleep hours of

the learners during school nights averaged a duration quite less than the

required number of hours that the adolescent needs to have every day (Ming

et al., 2011). From their reports of inadequate sleep hours during weekdays

and excessive amount of sleep during weekends supports that their wake cycle

shows signs of abnormality. This is most likely caused by their schedule of

waking up early hour in the morning in order to attend school and the late hour

they stay up in order for them to do and finish their school projects and

requirements. Additionally, results gathered from a questionnaire demonstrated

that 80 percent of the participants feel sleepiness during school days (Rose,

2018). This implies that learners that were classified as sleep deprived are most

likely to experience academic challenges.

66
 Challenges that the sleep deprived Grade 12 AdDU-SHS Learners face.

The inquiry on the “What are the Grade 12 AdDU-SHS Learners’ insights

and realization about sleep deprivation?” is answered by four major themes

elaborated below.

The Learners face different Health Problems. Effects of sleep

deprivation can be first seen through looking at their body language. In this

sections, the respondents’ response mostly talked about what they were feeling

when sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation is often associated with larger body

mass index (BMI) and may influence morbidity and mortality, Taheri et al.

(2004). It has been observed that most of the respondents feel nauseous,

headaches, and others gain weight because of stress. These experiences of

the respondents’ can be supported by a study conducted by 2014. According

to the study conducted by Owens (2014), students in grades 9 to 12,

acknowledges the sleep loss experienced especially by teenagers as a grave

public health issue. Also, a study conducted by Banfi et. Al. (2019), says that

studies show that lack of sleep has linked to the increase of prevalence of

diabetes and/or obesity. Lastly, the study of Banks and Dinges (2005)

confirmed that chronic sleep reduction may affect the cardiovascular and

immune responses of a human body. It was shown when the participants have

higher risk to coronary illnesses and influenza virus obtaining less than 7 hours

of sleep only.

The Learners Develop Emotional Instability. When According to the

study of Saghir et al. (2018), it shows that sleep deprivation has similar effects

to adults, teens, and even children. In fact, even one sleepless night aggravates

mood swings, such as irritability, depression, and anxiety, and can result to

67
disorientation, weariness, and loss of stamina. Due to their lack of energy, their

mental well-being is disturbed causing them to have an unstable approach

toward things. Most participants, due to lack of energy, lose attention and get

very irritable easily. A similar result was from a study conducted by Al-Abri

(2015), which shows a significant relationship between lack of sleep among

people that develops depression among the individuals. Neurology (2019)

stated that, lack of sleep can lead to health problems which include poor

memory, loss of attention, low immune system, sudden changes of mood, and

depression.

The Learners Deal with Time-Management Issues. Most learners are

over-whelmed by the tasks given to them that limits them to do activities they

like. One of the factors is the schedule of the school, where they believe is too

early for them and others get frustrated because it disrupts their own schedule.

Trockel et al. (2010) stated that various variables such as sleep habits, eating,

and time management is associated with sleep deprivation.

The Learners Display Low-Academic Performance. Sleep

deprivation has just not affected our bodies, but also our performance in school.

Most of the participants answered that due to lack of sleep, they are less

productive in school and tend to fall asleep during class hours. A study by

Patrick et. Al. (2017), shows that sleep deprivation is common among university

students and has been related with poor academic performance and physical

dysfunction. It has also been observed that most learners perform only at bare

minimum. The same results were presented by Alhola and Polo-Kantola (2007)

who studied the impact of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance. Both

total and partial sleep deprivation causes changes in cognitive performance.

68
Students’ insights towards sleep deprivation.

In this section, the insights and realizations of the participants towards

sleep deprivation will be given focus. Their thoughts about this personally will

be reflected in this part of the chapter.

Students have varied coping mechanisms towards sleep

deprivation. There are different ways on how people can cope with sleep

deprivation like doing things to kill the time or even consider proper diet to be

able to deal with it but almost all response from the participants had a common

answer; they all cope with sleep deprivation by sleeping or taking short naps. It

was stated that taking naps for 20-30 minutes can help you be more refreshed

and helps you be more productive for the rest of the day (Cruz et al., 2016).

Furthermore, Henna (2018) stated that taking short-term sleep or also known

as naps can increase one’s alertness and makes a person do better at his job.

Sleep is a basic necessity for a student’s life. Scientifically, we,

humans need at least 8 hours of sleep to maintain a healthy body. According

to a journal article by Ming et al. (2011), sleep is inevitable that humans really

need to have a good quality of sleep to live and perform normally. Sleep is

essential for physical growth, helps in aiding with the interest of a learner to

listen and participate in class, and also, sleep is a good way to relax after a long

day at school. According to Holmes (2016), having a good quality type of sleep

helps one to remain sharp and alert. Also, it was stated that it helps improve

learning and problem-solving skills.

Students recognize the evident effects of sleep deprivation in their

whole well-being. Not being able to acquire good quality of sleep can cause

different effects in a person’s well-being, may it be mentally or physically. The

69
responses of the participants have shown that the students address to these

effects and they actually take notice as to how it changed their physical and

mental state. According to Saghir et al. (2018), it was seen that even with just

one sleepless night, it can already aggravate one’s mood swings, irritability and

also anxiety. Aside from affecting the mental state, students also recognized

the physical effects of sleep deprivation. Neurology (2019) stated that lack of

sleep can cause health problems and one of which is low immune system.

Students usually acquire illnesses due to their low immune system.

Students’ various perception towards sleep deprivation. Lack of

sleep has different effects on people. The learners who experience sleep

deprivation have different thoughts and ideas towards this. Some find it difficult

to deal with the issue, some do not. Some find sleep deprivation as an

advantage, some find it as a pure disadvantage. Different perception from

different experiences. According to Saghir et al. (2018), being sleep deprived

for even just a night can cause a change in a person’s mood. There’s also a

study that says being sleep deprived can be a factor to the development of

health implications (Neurology, 2019). Just like these studies, it proves that

sleep deprivation contributes a lot of negative effect which can help us conclude

that people who experiences this have a hard time with dealing with it.

Implications on Human Health and Hygiene

The presented results show that sleep deprivation or lack of sleep has

significant effects on the Grade 12 learners. It does not only affect the learners’

physical health but as well as its other aspects such as mental health, social

interactions and more. It also implies that sleep deprivation does not only lead

to weariness but it also causes disruption on the functioning of an individual,

70
such as weakened concentration, impaired memory, longer reaction time,

lesser productivity and emotional disturbances. To address the said issue, this

study suggests that the current school should help in identifying the students

who are sleep deprived and create a program that would help them deal with

sleep deprivation and provide them possible solutions to solve their problems

on sleeping.

Implications on STEM Education

The results of the study also demonstrated that sleep deprivation on

students can be caused by different factors such as academic challenges and

social media dependency. To address this issue, the study suggests that the

school should include the importance of sleep and consequences of sleep

deprivation on their curriculum. By this, information on sleep deprivation could

be easily brought to the learners and we could promote awareness to everyone.

Also, interactive seminar can be done to create a deeper understanding on

sleep deprivation and present some coping mechanisms that could help the

learners in increasing the amount of sleep that they could get.

Concluding Remarks

During the whole conduct of this qualitative research, we discovered that

sleep deprivation is very common to students. This study allowed us to realize

the importance of sleeping and creates different perspectives on the issue by

observing it in different ways and approaches.

We discovered that people have different opinions and perspectives

when it comes to the importance of sleep. Some students say that getting the

right amount sleep is important for it plays a major role in our daily life. Some

71
say that sleeping late is also helpful because during that time, you could reflect

and use that time to be more productive.

Throughout the study, we learned that people have different experiences

which creates the differences in their responses. However, these responses

are important in creating a solution to a problem.

With this, we want to pursue our study and create a deeper

understanding on sleep deprivation for this issue is getting more evident in

today’s society.

72
References
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 Appendix

A. Interview Questions

79
B. Permission Letter to the Assistant Director of Academics

80
C. Informed Consent of Participant A

81
D. Informed Consent of Participant B

82
E. Informed Consent of Participant C

83
F. Informed Consent of Participant D

84
G. Informed Consent of Participant E

85
H. Informed Consent of Participant F

86
I. Informed Consent of Participant G

87
J. Informed Consent of Participant H

88
K. Informed Consent of Participant I

89
L. Informed Consent of Participant J

90
 CURRICULUM VITAE

JOSE ANTONIO VICENTE GARCIA BAÑES

Address: Blk 1, Lot 19, Fairmont st., Damosa Fairlane, Brgy. Anglionto, Lanang,
Davao City, Philippines

Age: 18 years old

Gender: Male

Civil Status: Single

Birthday: April 24, 2001

Birthplace: Davao City

Mother’s Name: Maria Theresa G. Bañes

Father’s Name: Jose Cleo H. Bañes

E-mail Address: antoniobanes00@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

School Level School Year

Ateneo de Davao Senior High S.Y. 2018 - Present

University
Junior High S.Y. 2014 - 2018
Ateneo de Davao
Grade School S.Y. 2008 - 2014
University

Ateneo de Davao
University

91
 CURRICULUM VITAE

FERNAN JOSEPH ARGUELLES BANTIDING

Address: Block 32 Lot 2 Gallera De Oro Subdivision, Bago Aplaya, Davao City

Age: 18 years old

Gender: Male

Civil Status: Single

Birthday: April 09, 2001

Birthplace: Davao City

Mother’s Name: Herminia A. Bantiding

Father’s Name: Fernando D. Bantiding Jr.

E-mail Address: fernanjbantiding@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

School Level School Year

Ateneo de Davao Senior High

S.Y. 2018 - Present
University

Davao City National S.Y. 2014-2018

Junior High
High School

Ateneo de Davao
Grade School S.Y. 2005-2014
University

92
 CURRICULUM VITAE

IRA BRIAN BORRO CABUENAS

Address: Buhangin Alliance Church, Diversion Road, Buhangin, Davao City

Age: 18 years old

Gender: Male

Civil Status: Single

Birthday: March 9, 2001

Birthplace: Dujali, Davao del Norte

Mother’s Name: Josephine B. Cabuenas

Father’s Name: Dominador C. Cabuenas

E-mail Address: iancabuenasbrain@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

School Level School Year

Ateneo de Davao Senior High

S.Y. 2018 - Present
University

Daniel R. Aguinaldo Junior High

S.Y. 2014-2018
National High School
Magallanes S.Y. 2005-2014
Elementary School Grade School

93
 CURRICULUM VITAE

CHRYZELLA RYANNE P. LAMOSTE

Address: Gertrudes St, Talomo Proper, Davao City

Age: 17 years old

Gender: Female

Civil Status: Single

Birthday: October 27, 2001

Birthplace: Davao City

Mother’s Name: Crebby Ann P. Lamoste

Father’s Name:

E-mail Address: chryzellaryanne27@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

School Level School Year

Ateneo de Davao Senior High
S.Y. 2018 - Present
University

St. Peter’s College of Junior High

S.Y. 2014-2018
Toril

Grade School
San Lorenzo College S.Y. 2005-2014
of Davao

94
 CURRICULUM VITAE

DANICA ANNE LADEMORA MIRANDA

Address: 107 Almond Drive Ecoland Phase 7, Matina, Davao City

Age: 18 years old

Gender: Female

Civil Status: Single

Birthday: July 03, 2001

Birthplace: Davao City

Mother’s Name: Teofila L. Miranda

Father’s Name: Antonio Ignacio Q. Angel

E-mail Address: danicaannelmiranda@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

School Level School Year

Senior High S.Y. 2018 – Present
Ateneo de Davao
University

Ateneo de Davao Junior High

S.Y. 2014-2018
University

Grade School
Ateneo de Davao
University S.Y. 2005-2014

95
 CURRICULUM VITAE

VIENNE ERIKA TAGALOG PRETILA

Address: 100 Sta. Ana Avenue, Davao City, Philippines

Age: 18 years old

Gender: Female

Civil Status: Single

Birthday: January 29, 2001

Birthplace: Davao City

Mother’s Name: Jocelyn T. Pretila

Father’s Name: Victor Emmanuel R. Pretila

E-mail Address: viennepretila@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

School Level School Year

Ateneo de Davao Senior High S.Y. 2018 - Present

University

Stella Maris Academy

Junior High S.Y. 2014 - 2018
of Davao

Stella Maris Academy S.Y. 2008 - 2014

Grade School
of Davao

96
 CURRICULUM VITAE

Danica Leanne Bonzo Romero

City Address: 911-8 Artiaga Extension Quezon Boulevard Davao City

Gender: Female

Civil Status: Single

Religion: Roman Catholic

Birthday: July 11, 2001

Birthplace: Davao City

Mother’s Name: Delia B. Romero

E-mail Address: romerodncaleanneb@gmail.com

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

SCHOOL LEVEL SCHOOL YEAR

Ateneo de Davao University Senior High S.Y. 2019 -Present

Holy Cross of Davao College Junior High S.Y. 2014-2018

Davao City Special School Grade School S.Y. 2008-2014

97
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