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This study wanted to look at how these three dynamics affected the daily lives of students in grades 9, 10 and 12. In this study, they began with the students when they were in the 9th grade and continued with them during their 1 10th and 12th grade. There were 535 students who attended three public schools in Los Angels with an equal number of females and males. The students came from Latin American, Asian and European backgrounds with families that range from lower-middle class to upper-middle class.
Students received $30 compensation for returning employed materials and received two movies passes if the material was done correctly and on time. This was a longitudinal study that took within-person analysis which had the students serving as their own control group. The students began by completing a questionnaire about their demographics and information on their parents. The students also completed checklists to be completed before bed for 14 consecutive days which included closed and open-ended questions.
The questions disclosed the amount of time the students spent studying outside of school and the amount of hours they spent sleeping the night before. The sleeping was tracked through electronic wrist devices and after each day the students put their reports into envelopes and sealed it with an electronic date stamp. Lastly, the students measured their academic problems throughout the day, and their Spas were acquired across the years of the study. The findings showed that study time did not change, but sleep time and academic problems decreased throughout the years the students attended high school.
The results suggested that increasing study time for sleep time was associated with increased academic problems. These occurred whether or not the students had assignments or tests the following day. One aspect of the study that I found interesting was that there was no evidence for individual differences even with such a diverse population. One strength to the research that I found was that the population was fairly diverse and the population size was fairly substantial. I thought that their use of the incentives was a great way to motivate students to participate.
Their use of technology was also a great way to get accurate information from the students and to ensure that the checklists were done properly. A limitation that came across was there was no way to account for why students may have done poorly. For example, during the two week period, the lessons taught may have been topics that the student found more difficult to understand causing them to have more problems in school. Another limitation that I found was that there was no way to prove that the students were staying up for the purpose of studying.
The dents may have been studying more, but their reasons for staying up later could be social or work related. The implications of this study can potentially lead to informing students about the importance of sleep habits. As this study shows, sleep is a crucial aspect to learning; giving the students this information may lead them to changing sleep patterns. This study also tells educators that it may be important to give extra study time to students during school hours so that they can have the rest of their day for other activities and what seems to be much needed sleep.