Meredith Arterburn

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

capabilities that may not be as noticeable (like focus and emotions).

 Overall, these results support the claim that a lack of sleep in student athletes leads to a

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

with the quantitative questions.

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