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Data Collection 2019
Data Collection 2019
Chawkat
Independent Research
15 March 2019
Data Collection
I. Data
II. Analysis
Research on the topic of sleep in student athletes was most appropriately conducted using
mixed method research because there were aspects of both qualitative and quantitative methods.
The tool was a survey, which asked both qualitative questions, such as how student athletes felt
about various aspects of sleep, as well as quantitative questions, such as hours per night of sleep.
A survey was the most appropriate tool because the research focuses on student athletes, so
surveying student athletes gives primary data that contributes to the research question. A survey
can also assess multiple aspects of the question with just one tool.
The main finding of this questionnaire was that although there did not seem to be a strong
correlation between the amount of athletic activity and the amount of sleep a student gets, a lack
of sleep strongly affects the athletic and academic well being of student athletes. Out of all 89
respondents, 31.5% agree or strongly agree that their athletic participation decreases the amount
of sleep, however, that is not enough for it to be considered a strong correlation. Student athletes
do not tend to think that their athletics reduce the quality of their sleep, for 68.6% of respondents
disagree or strongly disagree that their athletic participation decreases the quality of their sleep.
There were many variances in the amount of naps, the amount of homework, and the
amount of sleep that high school students get, regardless of whether they are athletes or not. The
majority of students (64%) shared the sentiment that they do not get enough sleep. There were
very mixed sentiments among students on whether they felt they slept well or not. The last
question of the survey asked respondents how they felt a lack of sleep affected them. Overall,
students responded with many of the possible effects. The most common answer was less focus,
which 88.8% of respondents felt was an effect of less sleep. Less focus affects both athletic and
academic performance profoundly. Additionally, 74.2% of respondents answered that they are
more emotionally unstable when they lack sleep, which can make schooling and athletics more
difficult. Although only 43.8% of respondents answered that they feel their athletic performance
worsens with a lack of sleep, they answered other effects that would decrease their athletic
decrease in athletic and academic performance. The results align with previous research in the
field, as explained in the literature review. A limitation of this study that there was a limited
audience. First, the audience came almost entirely from one high school, which could skew the
results towards the trends of just that school. Also, the survey was distributed to high school
students, so it does not make conclusions for student athletes at the collegiate level. In addition,
the self-evaluation of a questionnaire can can difficult for reliable data collection; respondents
can not always accurately evaluate themselves, especially for sleep, which can be difficult to
assess because of unconsciousness during the action. If this study were to be done again, it would
be helpful to ask more questions in the survey of how student athletes feel their sleep, athletics,
and academics interact with each other. That way, there would be more qualitative data to pair
III. Conclusion
The results of this questionnaire will contribute to the pool of knowledge in the sleep in
athletics field. They provides results that even further emphasize the need for sleep for the
success of students and athletes and the push for a better management of schedules to maximize
sleep time. The new knowledge from these results is the focus on high school students
specifically and what they think are the most prominent effects of a lack of sleep. Altogether,
growing knowledge on sleep deficiency in student athletes will improve the lives of young adults