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Paula Shin
5/23/18
Pd. 2
Part 3:
DATA ANALYSIS
To determine how the use of electronics and social media impacts adolescent sleeping habits, a
survey collected information from middle school, high school, and college students. This form of
data collection consisted of voluntary polling regarding individual sleeping habits.

I used questions from vetted surveys, created by the

National Sleep Foundation, from around the nation to
survey underclassmen in the school and compare the
different results. I created a survey with 11 questions
asking students of their sleeping habits and what they
do with their electronics before going to sleep. I
surveyed mostly freshman and sophomores, with a few
upperclassmen and college students. I wanted to know
how much sleep they got, on average, and compare it to
their habits of using electronic devices before sleeping.
Based on my survey for underclassmen River Hill
students, I found that 96% of students regularly use
some sort of electronic device an hour before going to
bed. Similarly, a 2011 study from the National Sleep
Foundation found that 95% of those surveyed engaged
in active use of technology within an hour of bedtime.
The students who use a computer or cell phone in the
hour before going to sleep sleep later in the night and
get a less amount of sleep overall. For those who use some sort of electronic device in the hour
before bedtime, they states that they “rarely” or “never” say that they “had a good night’s sleep”.
For one surveyor who did not use any sort of device before bed, a “good night’s sleep” was
guaranteed “almost every night”, supporting my conclusion that eliminating the use of
electronics creates a healthy sleep schedule. In addition, for students who have slept more than 7
hours, and use very few electronics at night, put that they have a good night’s sleep “almost
every night”. Looking at the trend of the results of my study, as the students get older, they are
sleeping later on in the night and get a smaller amount of sleep (with the exception of a few
college students who, despite having more responsibilities than high-schoolers, are able to get as
much sleep, if not more, than the high-school students.) Also, as the students get older, they use a
wider variety of electronic devices, which is correlated to those who get as little sleep as 5-6
hours. In addition, for those students who have slept more than 7 hours, they put that they have a
good night’s sleep “almost every night”. Those students are also the ones who use the smallest
variety of electronics. I compared my results to the data collected by the National Sleep
Foundation and found that my results are similar to the data gathered by the vetted surveys.
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Conclusion:
Based on the data provided by the surveyed population, a vast majority of students in the
Clarksville area, similar to many other Generation Z’ers in the United States, use electronics in
the hour before going to bed, which has shown to impact their sleeping schedules. ​My study
supports my conclusion that the use of electronic devices at night has a detrimental impact on the
quality of sleep, as it shows that the students who do not use electronics as much as other
students do, are able to get a higher amount and quality of sleep.

Questions:
1. What grade are you in?
2. Thinking about the past two weeks, at what time do you usually get up on weekdays?
3. At what time do you usually go to bed on weeknights?
4. On school nights, how many hours do you usually sleep during one night?
5. On average, how many minutes would you say you usually nap on school days?
6. On how many school nights would you say “I had a good night’s sleep”?
7. Thinking about the past two weeks, does your current school schedule, including your
duties at home, allow you to get adequate sleep?
8. Thinking about the past two weeks, on a typical night, which of the following have you
used in the hour before trying to go to sleep?
9. What do you usually do with your cell phone when you are ready to go to sleep?
10. In the past few weeks, how often have you had phone calls, text messages or emails that
wake you after trying to go to sleep?
11. How often do you sleep with any light on in your bedroom?
12. How many minutes, on most school nights/weeknights, does it take you to fall asleep?