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Sleep Inertia: How Light Can Affect Waking Up In the Morning
Abstract:
Over the course of 4 weeks, we conducted research on the effects of light and sound's on with waking up in the morning. Through research, my team and I learned about sleep inertia, the feeling grogginess and lack of spacial awareness upon waking up. Due to the lack of research on how sound affects sleep inertia, we focused our research on the effects of light. We distributed a survey on social media and conducted in-person interviews using the same questions from the survey. We then used Weka and Tableau to analyze the data. Then we conceptualized and designed a device to help combat sleep inertia using Arduino toolkits, led lights, and laser cutting. Our final design was of an alarm clock that also serves as a charger that lights up when the user's alarm goes off. Time and resources allowed us to create an alarm clock that lights up in a programmed pattern.
Project Research & Survey | Sleep Inertia
In class, I was assigned to research:
The effects of light and sound associated with waking up in the morning
Part 1:
Topic Area: How light and sound can affect sleep inertia
“Sleep inertia refers to the phenomenon of decreased performance and/or disorientation occurring immediately after awakening from sleep relative to pre-sleep status”
Top five indicators:
Reaction Time
Level of Sleepiness
Spatial Awareness
Impaired Motor Dexterity/Task Accuracy
Decreased cognitive ability
The indicators selected were based on the related research article. Sleep deprivation maintaining a sleep schedule and task productivity can be found challenging to many college students. When looking at the top factors that can affect sleep inertia we were able to conclude that reaction time, level of sleepiness, spatial awareness, impaired motor dexterity, and decreased cognitive ability will be affected as a result.
Bibliography:
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American Journal of Psychiatry 150 (1993): 113-113.
Czeisler, Charles A. “Duration, Timing and Quality of Sleep Are Each Vital for Health,
Performance and Safety.” Sleep Health, vol. 1, no. 1, 2015, pp. 5–8., doi:10.1016/j.sleh.2014.12.008.
Hayashi, Mitsuo, et al. "The effects of the preference for music on sleep inertia after a short
daytime nap." Sleep and Biological Rhythms 2.3 (2004): 184-191.
Regestein, Quentin, et al. "Sleep debt and depression in female college students." Psychiatry
research 176.1 (2010): 34-39.
Tassi, Patricia, and Alain Muzet. “Sleep Inertia.” Sleep Medicine Reviews, vol. 4, no. 4, 2000, pp.
341–353., doi:10.1053/smrv.2000.0098.
Talbot, Lisa S. et al. “Sleep Deprivation in Adolescents and Adults: Changes in Affect.” Emotion
(Washington, D.C.) 10.6 (2010): 831–841. PMC. Web. 5 Jan. 2018.
Van De Werken, Maan, et al. "Effects of artificial dawn on sleep inertia, skin temperature, and
the awakening cortisol response." Journal of sleep research 19.3 (2010): 425-435.
Link to Survey Draft: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeFusEk6GDjqbJ75XG2xpACUeMwyEo_I3X9eTKpcZvJOhJjBw/viewform?usp=sf_link
Data Analysis of Sleep Survey | Sleep Inertia
Carla Cobb, Carly Mayrose, and Lauren Masoncup
Average Hours of Sleep (34.37%)
One of the most important attributes we identified exhibited in the conditions of Sleep Inertia was the data analysis of ‘Average Hours of Sleep’. A trend can be found that less than or equal to 4 rating (out of a 7 rating) for reaction time was directly correlated with having 5 or less hours of sleep. Where as a reaction time greater than 4 was directly correlated to having 7 hours of sleep. In addition we are able to observe that when people answered ‘False’ to having trouble waking up in the morning had 8 or more hours of sleep, which in theory makes sense. However data showed that when rating their typical level of grogginess in the morning (1 being extremely groggy to 7 being highly aware); it was found that less than or equal to 3 rating had 6 hours of sleep whereas greater than 3 (more aware in the morning people) reported having 5 or less hours of sleep on average.
Average hours of sleep is an attribute that should be focused on for education programs. From the data collected through a survey consisting of 16 online responses and 16 in person responses; trends were found from analysis of the data. The more hours of sleep one average a night, the less likely to have trouble waking up in the morning. In addition, ones reaction time when waking up will be higher with more than 7 hours of sleep on average.
(Average Hours of Sleep at Night)
State of Cognitive Ability (54.5%)
Another attribute worth focusing on when studying sleep inertia is whether of not “...cognitive ability is altered in the morning compared to other times of the day”. Individuals who rated their grogginess as 3.5 or under said that their cognitive ability was altered in the morning. This makes sense because the more sleepy you are the less coherent. Of the individuals who rated their grogginess as 3.5 - 4.5, some were males who all said that their cognitive ability was altered. The females with this level of grogginess said their cognitive ability was altered despite their reaction time in the morning. Individuals who rated their grogginess as 4.5 - 5.5 had trouble with spatial awareness. Those who did not have an issue with spatial awareness typically did not have trouble waking up in the morning or issues with cognitive ability in the morning. This makes sense the less groggy you are the more aware you are of your surroundings. Those who only sometimes had an issue with their cognitive ability had an issue with waking up in the morning but no issue with spatial awareness and their grogginess was pretty low. Individuals with a grogginess level of 5.5 or higher and had an affected reaction time less than or equal than 4 thought that their cognitive ability was altered while individuals with a reaction time greater than 4 felt that their cognitive ability was not altered.
1- extremely groggy; 2 - very groggy; 3 - somewhat groggy; 4 - neutral; 5 - somewhat aware; 6 - highly aware; 7- extremely aware
(State of Cognitive Ability )
The preprocessing and classifications were done using the Weka software. The data was imported in the Explorer Application and was discretized. All the attributes were used except for the removal of the color of sleeping space. The data was classified as J48 and tested using cross-validation with folds of 10 and a percentage split of 66%.
The attribute we felt was crucial to analyze of data was Hours of Sleep. In congruence with the survey we conducted, we were able to justify that our other attributes were dependent on a person's average hours of sleep a night. From this we were able to see: reaction time, level of grogginess in the morning, and if there was trouble waking up in the morning in relation to how many hours of sleep a person averaged. From the data we found, our indicators used from our sleep survey show that one is able to function at a slightly higher rate when averaging more sleep per night.
Another attribute that was analyzed was State of Cognitive Ability in the morning compared to other times of the day. The survey question was presented as a Yes, No or Sometimes answer. When analysing the data we were able to see a correlation of having a greater than 4 reaction time (out of a 7 rating) of waking up in the morning to not having one's cognitive ability altered. In addition when ones reaction time was less than or equal to 4 it was shown to have one's cognitive ability impaired. From the data collected, the indicators used from our sleep survey show that one can expect to see no effect in their cognitive ability when they posses a higher reaction time for waking up in the morning.
Link to the data file used to analyze the data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eaoeYgxkw0dI6ObMI5ILKDBMC_uc3Rrw_EUpvR7PjVM/edit?usp=sharingcsv
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