Teacher Area

Sleep Log Activity

Grades: 5-12, college.  Subjects: Health (healthy lifestyles), Science (behavioral self-research, scientific rigor), Psychology (sleep, habits, behavioral change)

Overview:

Students will use scientific rigor to track and record information about their own sleep.

Students will compare their sleep habits to those of other students.

Students will evaluate their own health habits re: the quantity and quality of their own sleep.

Students will identify how various factors affect their sleep.

Materials:

Sleep Log Worksheet (Microsoft Word document)

Introductory Discussion Questions:

  • "How much sleep should we get each night?" (After some discussion, stress that it varies for individuals, but most experts advise  9-10 hours per night for their age group.)

  • "When we don’t get enough sleep, what are the consequences?" (Discuss the concept of sleep deprivation [link]/ "sleep debt." Share examples of major accidents blamed on sleep loss.)

  • "Are there times you sleep worse than others? What are the reasons?"

Procedure:

Explain that students are to individually track their own sleep over the next 2 weeks, paying careful attention to what things affect the quantity and quality of their sleep.

Distribute sleep log worksheets, and explain in detail how to complete them. Suggest keeping the logs at bedside for convenience.

Periodically remind the students to be working on their sleep logs, and/or check their progress.

When the logs are complete, have students go to the "How Does Your Sleep Measure Up?" page of the STUDENT area of this web site and compare their sleep to other students’.

Points for Discussion:

  • What was easy or hard about doing the sleep log at home? Were you able to do it every single day? Do you usually pay this much attention to your own health habits? How do you think attention to detail may affect scientific results?

  • Did the fact that you were studying and documenting your sleep affect it in any noticeable way? Do you think that scientific results could be valid if the researcher were studying his/her own behavior? Why or why not?

  • Do you get about the same amount of sleep each night, or not? (If not, do you notice any patterns in the differences?)

  • How do factors like lighting, temperature, noise, bed comfort, food, illness, medicine, workload, napping, stress, etc. affect your sleep? [link?]

  • How typical are your sleep habits? (In comparison to other young people who submitted responses to the web site.)

  • Do you need an alarm clock to wake up in the morning? Does a parent always wake you? Do you use a snooze button? (Rule of thumb: If you cannot wake up on time without the help of an alarm clock or parent, you probably aren’t getting enough sleep.)

  • How do you usually feel in the morning? (Rule of thumb: If you wake up feeling well-rested and alert, you are probably getting plenty of sleep.)

  • Overall, what is the quality of your sleep?

  • What kind of changes could you make to improve your sleep? Are these realistic? Why or why not?

  • Do you ever make poor choices about sleep? If so, why? And what impact do you think it has on your life?

Possible extensions

Teachers:

Compile and average the entire class’s data.

Challenge the students to improve their sleep pattern, sleeping 9-10 hours per night for one week, and have them write about the experience.

Give awards for students with the healthiest sleep patterns.

Students:

Keep a partial sleep log (during your own waking hours) for an infant – less than 4 months old – or a pet (your "subject"), one weekend day. (You may want to use an alarm watch or other device to remember to check the subject’s behavior every 10-15 minutes. ) What differences do you notice between your log and the subject’s log? Investigate the reasons why your subject displays different sleep patterns than yours.

Experiment with environmental factors (noise, light, temperature, etc.) to see how your sleep environment affects your sleep. Change only one thing at a time. Keep careful records of your results.

Interview people of different ages and backgrounds (for example, a new parent, a shift worker, an elderly person) about their sleep habits. Compare and contrast their habits with your own.