The Effect of Stress on Sleep in Adolescents.

The Effect of Stress on Sleep in Adolescent students.

Jack Barringer

Year 11 Psychology.

Mrs Walters

11/05/2023

1628 Words
 Stress and the Sleep-Wake cycle.

Sleep is defined as the naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or absent

consciousness, relatively suspended sensory activity, and inactivity of nearly all voluntary Charlotte Walters: Don't centre body text
muscles. Sleep is affected by multiple different factors, including biological factors,
Charlotte Walters: Reference needed
psychological factors, and socio-cultural factors (Carskadon, 2011).

There are various theories that try to explain the need for sleep, including the evolutionary
theory which says living beings use sleep to survive in hostile environments (Source) and the
Restorative theory that states we use sleep to repair and replenish and not just a way to avoid
predators. One key thing however has always been fact, we need sleep to survive and the Charlotte Walters: Reference required
more sleep we get the better. Sleep allows the body to rid toxic waste around the body (most
importantly the brain), allows nerve cells to reorganize and boosts metabolism (Lorelle Charlotte Walters: Agentless language required for
academic writing
Burton, 2019).
Charlotte Walters: Find a stronger source than the
The Sleep-Wake cycle is how the body’s release of melatonin and cortisol (therefore awake
textbook - there will be lots out there!
and asleep) is decided by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (often termed our internal body clock).
This cycle is attuned to a circadian rhythm and is largely endogenous (Lorelle Burton, 2019)> Charlotte Walters: Language

However, there are a few external cues, called zeitgebers, that does adjust the internal body
clock including light and noise (Lorelle Burton, 2019). This sleep-wake cycle is important for
adolescents as it goes through significant changes during this time which effects their
development and mental health (Carskadon, 2011). Carskadon found that the sleep-wake
cycle goes later when individuals go into puberty, causing these individuals to feel tired way
later. This is called “phase delay” and provides some insight on the less amount of sleep
Charlotte Walters: Nice information here - but before
you talk about the findings of Carskadon briefly
summarise how they collected their data, their
research methods etc. Give a brief overview of the
whole investigation as a whole (only needs to be two
or three sentences)

teenagers.
Charlotte Walters: Sentence structure here
Carskadon’s investigation into the sleep-wake cycle and sleep deprivation in teenagers found
that plenty of factors influenced this cycle, including biological (the phase delay),
Psychological and Socio-cultural (Carskadon, 2011). However, one main factor Carskadon
Charlotte Walters: In what way did they not consider it?
did not consider was Stress and how it affects adolescent’s sleep. In this period adolescents Was it not a variable that they investigated? Be more
often switch from middle-school to high school and are held to higher standards and specific in this limitation

expectations by society, which include finding work, deciding on their future, going out with
friends while still expecting decent grades in school. This along with higher workloads in Charlotte Walters: Reference
school and at home create significantly more stress on these individuals. This creates a
negative impact on their sleep, as stress influences sleep by disrupting REM sleep and each
stage of REM sleep, while also causing illnesses such as sleep apnea (Fry & Dimitriu, 2023). It Charlotte Walters: Nice reference
also notably increases the chemical cortisol, which is linked to alertness and high arousal
levels, causing an individual who is stressed to be less likely to fall asleep.
Charlotte Walters: Was it refined, redirected or
This experiment was done to find out if stress is an impactful factor in the daily quantity of extended from Carskadon? How so and why? Be
sleep in adolescents, which if proven true, can give us a solution on why teenagers are specific here

sleeping less hours thus causing sleep-deprived factored illnesses such as sleep apnea or
depression. We know that stress impacting sleep quality can negatively affect academic
grades (K Ahrberg, 2012) but could it be an overall factor for the declining sleep we see?

Research Question.
To what extent does the amount of stress experienced impact the daily quantity of sleep in Charlotte Walters: Operationalise stress in terms of
time
adolescents?

Methodology
Participants

This experiment was a correlational research design. The sample consisted of 14 high school Charlotte Walters: Is there more information you can
male students aged 15-17 from Queensland, Australia. A convenience sampling method was provide about participants? Refer to the first page of
the collated data document on Realm
used to find these participants with a year 11 Psychology class.

Variables

The Independent variables were the daily quantity of sleep a participant has as well as the
amount of stress they experience every single day. Charlotte Walters: In what unit were these measured?

Hypothesis

Since Stress is known to influence the sleep-wake cycle, those participants who recorded Charlotte Walters: No need to capitalise stress
higher levels of stress daily would be having less sleep overall then those who recorded lower
levels of stress. This is because higher amounts of stress cause higher levels of cortisol which
keeps the body alert and awake. Charlotte Walters: Nice hypothesis

Null Hypothesis

There is no relationship between higher levels of stress causing a lower quantity in

adolescents, signifying that stress isn’t a factor in the delay of the sleep-wake cycle in Charlotte Walters: No contractions in scientific writing
adolescents.
Alternative hypothesis

There is a relationship between higher levels of stress causing lower quantity of sleep in
adolescents, signifying that stress is a factor in the delay of the sleep-wake cycle in
adolescents.

Materials and Equipment

• Sleep Survey.
• Consent form.
• Laptop for data processing.

Method

1. Participants were given consent forms before uploading. Charlotte Walters: Language here - this step is unclear
2. They were debriefed about how this survey would work, and an explanation was
given on their choice to withdraw.
3. Participants were given the survey task sheet on either physical or digital form and
asked to complete a section daily based on their sleep and daily tasks/routines during
Charlotte Walters: Provide more information regarding
the day. the sleep survey. What sorts of questions did the
4. After this was done for 2 weeks, the experimenter will collect all survey results and survey asks? About what habits?

record them in a spreadsheet.

Charlotte Walters: Watch your tense in your
methodology - it switches a few times
Risk Assessment

There were no perceived risks either physically or psychologically with the participants. They gave Charlotte Walters: Scientific language - refer to
participants rather than they
their informed consent to be in this experiment after having a debrief about what the experiment was
about, they were also given a consent form to sign if they wished to continue. During this entire
Charlotte Walters: Briefing is the information before
experiment process all participants had the right to withdraw their participation and the data they held. the experiment, debriefing is the information after the
At all times the information and data were kept confidential and deidentified on a secure device with a experiment
password.

Results
Raw data

Table 1.
Raw data on the effect stress has on sleep.

Experiment observations

- Some were not honest on their records of sleep and stress.

- Some participants did not understand how to do the task properly.
- Some recorded uncomplete information. Charlotte Walters: Language

Processed data

Figure 1

Scatterplot graph detailing the relationship between the amount of stress someone
Charlotte Walters: Simplify this title
experienced versus the amount of sleep they had.

120

100
Stress (minutes)

80
Charlotte Walters: Can you play around with the
60
scatterplot and get the x axes to start at 300? This will
40 give you a better view of the trendline
20

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Sleep (minutes)

Figure 1 indicates the relationship between stress and sleep as a scatterplot. The data shows
Charlotte Walters: There is a relationship there so there
that someone’s amount of stress has no effect on the amount of sleep someone has on a daily
is an effect - this contradicts what you say later
basis, as Figure 1 shows a moderate negative relationship. An explanation for this moderate
relationship is the group of vales that experienced higher stress levels, having a similar Charlotte Walters: Unclear

quantity of sleep to those who experienced less stress. This needs to be further investigated.
Charlotte Walters: How so? What can be done? Why?
Elaborate on this point here - it is correct yet not
communicated effectively
Figure 2

Table showing contents of values.

Sleep (minutes) Stress (minutes)

Mean 444.85 37.755
Standard deviation 42.48 37.53
r-value -0.3648

The standard deviation of stress was lower than the standard deviation for sleep, showing
more consistent data was given in courtesy to stress. Both standard deviation scores do show Charlotte Walters: Relation
an extremely high spread of values however, showing that the data isn’t inherently consistent.
Charlotte Walters: What does this mean
An outlier test was done which found no such outliers in this test, therefore the mean was
used as measurement of central tendency. This experiment used a Pearson’s correlational Charlotte Walters: Contraction
design with a scatterplot, which depicted a moderate negative relationship between stress and
Charlotte Walters: Good justification
sleep (Figure 1), with a r-value of -0.3648 (Figure 2). This moderate negative value indicates
that there is no strong relationship with the amount of stress and their quantity of sleep. Charlotte Walters: How come? Justify this - it will have
something do do with parametric vs non-parametric
Figure 3
data

500 444.85
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
37.755
50
0
1

The graph indicates that the mean levels of stress was relatively low across the entire sample
group, with the mean being 37.755 (or roughly 38 minutes a day). Due to this, it is unlikely
the average participant’s sleep would be influenced by stress. Charlotte Walters: How come? Unpack this thought
Discussion
The data shown depicts the relationship of the amount of stress and their quantity of sleep not
being strong enough to justify it being a factor in adolescents, and therefore we fail to reject Charlotte Walters: Agentless language required
the null hypothesis. The data was skewed by a group of results which while having high
levels of recorded stress, also had typically high levels of sleep. This is depicted in figure 1
which shows 4 results recording high levels of stress, but also moderate amounts of sleep in
line with those who recorded lower levels of stress. The only relevant concept is that these
participants, while stressed, still kept to good sleep hygiene practises which allowed their
body to sleep even with high levels of stress (Birch, 2023).

This experiment used a correlational research design and a convenience sampling method.
After this experiment was conducted, it is clear that a different sampling method needs to be
Charlotte Walters: Can you talk about bias within the
considered for the convenience method does not represent the entirety of the adolescent
data?
population, rather a small subset of it. This creates data and results unusable for the actual
adolescent population. Charlotte Walters: Does this impact validity or
reliability?
Various weaknesses were found in the test. Firstly, people were not accurate about their
Charlotte Walters: Participants
results for both sleep and stress. This comes from people’s fear of being judged for their
results (even if their data is anonymous), so they change details to be soon as more “normal”. Charlotte Walters: What is the psychological term for
The sample size was also two small for accurate results for an adolescent population to create this called?
accurate results.
Charlotte Walters: Spelling
There are improvements and extensions should be considered for future experiments in order
Charlotte Walters: What is some psychological
to improve the reliability and validity of the methodology. Firstly, the sample size must be
terminology you can use here? Was this generalisable
increased (n > 100), doing this would increase both the reliability and validity of the to the population?
experiment for it would better represent the adolescent population as a whole while creating
Charlotte Walters: You discuss validity and reliability
more accurate results. A further improvement would be to use the Prospective research
here but you need to discuss them above in relation to
design, with participants wearing devices such as an Apple Watch to track constant levels of the limitations of your investigation
stress and sleep to create accurate results. A last recommendation would be to use stratified
Charlotte Walters: How would it create more accurate
sampling techniques to ensure a balanced sample that represents the entire population of
results? Correct - but elaborate for clarity
adolescents. This would all greatly improve population validity.
Charlotte Walters: Similar to above - how would it
create more accurate results? Correct but elaborate for
clarity

Charlotte Walters: " " - Elaborate for clarity

 Charlotte Walters: Make it clear here which ones are
improvements and which ones are extensions - you get
marked for both :)

To improve reliability, we would use the new technology material, such as the apple watch, to Charlotte Walters: Language
create highly accurate results and not fault to human error (such as changing results to hope
they wouldn’t be judged). Charlotte Walters: Language

Conclusion

The research question for this experiment “To what extent does the amount of stress
experienced impact the daily quantity of sleep in adolescents?”. With the data depicted and
conclusions drawn, the question’s answer is that the amount of stress does not impact the
Charlotte Walters: Refer to the actual data - the
daily quantity of sleep in adolescents. Considering that it does not create an impact, it is then
scatterplot, the p-value etc
not a factor in sleep for adolescents and the null hypothesis was not rejected.
Charlotte Walters: Fail to reject the null - language
References
Alex Dimitriu, A. F. (2023, March 17). Sleep and Insomnia . Retrieved from Sleep Foundation.:
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/insomnia/stress-and-
insomnia#:~:text=In%20the%20case%20of%20insomnia%20related%20to%20stress%2C,can
%20upset%20the%20balance%20between%20sleep%20and%20wakefulness.

Birch, J. (2023, January 18). How To Fall Asleep When You’re Too Stressed To Sleep. Retrieved from
health.com: https://www.health.com/condition/sleep/how-to-go-to-sleep

Carskadon, M. A. (2011). Sleep in Adolescents: The Perfect Storm. NIH public access., 1-13. Charlotte Walters: Alphabetical order by author

K Ahrberg, M. D. (2012, October 3). The interaction between sleep quality and academic
performance. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 1618-1622. Retrieved from PubMed Advanced.

Lorelle Burton, R. E.-L.-D. (2019). Psychology for Queensland Units 1 & 2. Docklands: Oxford
University press.

Tee-Melegrito, R. A. (2023, May 5). Cortisol and stress: What is the connection? Retrieved from
MedicalNewsToday: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/cortisol-and-stress