The impact of sleep duration on sleepiness, mood and cognition Homework Help

The impact of sleep duration on sleepiness, mood and cognition

Paper instructions:
Investigation of the impact of sleep duration on sleepiness, mood, and cognition.
Brief Introduction:
Sleep deprivation can lead to profound deficits in cognitive performance – after 17 hours of being awake performance is reported to decrease to a level equivalent to that observed at a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%. Sleep deprivation is being recognised as a significant public health and safety problem, with almost 20% of all serious car crash injuries linked to driver sleepiness.
Despite the extensive body of evidence concerning the performance decrements associated with sleep loss, comparatively less is known about the specific nature of these deficits and whether these deficits are observed in people with short sleep duration in the general population.
The aim of this practical exercise is to investigate the impact of sleep duration on sleepiness, mood, and cognition. Data from all students enrolled in PSY2031 will be compiled. Data from students categorised as either „short sleepers? or „long sleepers? will be selected for analysis. The findings of the study have implications for our own lives, such as when we decide whether or not to deprive ourselves of sleep, for example, before exams.
In this study, you will be both a participant and a researcher. To examine the impact of sleep duration on sleepiness, mood, and cognition, we will be using the psychological tests listed below.
The Measures:
Sleepiness:
1) The Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) (Arkerstedt & Gillberg 1989). This is a self-report measure of fatigue. KSS is a nine-point scale, with semantic anchors (1 =`extremely alert’, 5 =’neither alert nor sleepy’, 9=’extremely sleepy – fighting sleep’).
Mood:
2) Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (10 mins) (Watson et al., 1988). The PANAS consists of 10 positive affects (interested, excited, strong, enthusiastic, proud, alert, inspired, determined, attentive, and active) and 10 negative affects (distressed, upset, guilty, scared, hostile, irritable, ashamed, nervous, jittery, and afraid). Participants are asked to rate each item on a scale from 1 to 5, based on the strength of emotion where 1 = “very slightly or not at all,” and 5 = “extremely”.
Cognition (Sustained Attention):
3) Trail Making task (TMT) (5 mins): (Franzen et al., 1996). The test consists of encircled numbers and letters randomly spread across a sheet of paper. The object of the test is for the participant to connect the numbers and letters in order, in an alternating pattern (1-A-2-B-3-C, etc.) in as little time as possible. (You will have to time yourself with a stop watch or similar)
References for test instruments:
Akerstedt, T., & Gillberg, M. (1990). Subjective and objective sleepiness in the active individual. International Journal of Neuroscience, 52, 29-37.Tombaugh, T.N. (2004). Trail Making Test A and B: Normative data stratified by age and education. Archives of Clincial Neuropsychology, 19, 203-214.
Watson, D., Clark, L.A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 54, 1063-1070.