Impacts of sleeping deprivation on foreign trade university students’ academic performance

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS ---***---RESEARCH PROPOSAL Research Methodology for Economics and Business IMPACTS OF SLEEPING DEPRIVATION ON FOREIGN TRADE U

FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

-*** -RESEARCH PROPOSAL Research Methodology for Economics and Business

IMPACTS OF SLEEPING DEPRIVATION ON FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Class: KTEE206(GD1-HK1-2223).1 Professor: Dr Pham Thi Cam Anh

Hanoi, October 2022

TASKS DIVISION TABLE

No Name and Surname Student ID Tasks Contribution

levels

Score

01 Introduction, Conclusion, Abstract and Editing 20%

02 Research Methodology and Methods, Abstract 20%

The body requires adequate sleep to maintain proper psychological, physicalhealth, and cognitive function People also have different ideal hours of sleeping perday at different ages For college students, a seven-to-eight-hour sleep isrecommended If a person does not get enough sleep, that person is said to have sleepdeprivation Sleep deprivation has many harmful effects, but our study will only onthe results of the bad academic performance of students

The study aims to get a deeper understanding of the detrimental effects of sleepdeprivation on the academic performance of Hanoi Foreign Trade University students

by analyzing data collected from online surveys Both quantitative and qualitativequestions are included to achieve a more profound understanding of the relationshipbetween sleep quality and school accomplishment and why students tend to go to bedlate Consciously chosen and easily accessible, three hundred seventy-fiverespondents, ages 18-22, constitute the study's sample Short-term transfer students areexcluded from the sample to avoid stochastic disturbance by cultural differences Datawill then be analyzed through Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and EpworthSleepiness Scale (ESS)

For our research findings to be as unbiased as possible, the design process iscarefully examined for all critical issues and solutions to tackle them Firstly, wewould ensure research ethics and minimize problems that can threaten internal andexternal validity To evaluate the data and make it usable, we would use GoogleSpreadsheet to clean up any incomplete data from a dataset Then, we would concludeand refer to related studies to get varied views and recommendations

Through a detailed evaluation of the research literature and further research proposal,this thesis explores the issues:

 How will sleep deprivation affect college students during the learning processand exams? Will different demographic profiles lead to different results?

 How will ongoing sleep deprivation impact students' academic performance?

TABLES OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

Background 1

Statement of the Problem 1

Significance of the Study 2

Scope and Limitations of the Study 2

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 3

Overview of normal sleep and sleep deprivation 3

Impacts of sleep deprivation on gender 4

LITERATURE REVIEW 4

Factors affecting sleep 4

Relationship between sleep and academic performance 5

Research gap 6

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND METHODS 6

Approach 6

Data collecting method: 7

Sample choosing method: 8

RESEARCH DESIGN 8

Ethical considerations 8

Minimizing factors leading to internal and external validity 9

Analyzing data: 9

Research timeline 10

CONCLUSION 11

REFERENCES 11

However, not everyone gets sufficient sleep to function fully, especially collegestudents Many studies in the past have shown a correlation between sleep deprivationand poor academic performance A lack of sleep harms cognitive abilities, learning,and memory processes, resulting in a lower cumulative grade point average (GPA).Inadequate sleep has been shown to affect a student's GPA by up to a 0.02 drop everynight of the week he sleeps poorly (Rapaport, 2018) After Michigan University, theaverage GPA of the group of students who slept less than 6 hours was 2.74, muchlower than the average GPA of the group of students who slept more than 9 hours,which was 3.24 (Hershner & Chervin, 2014) Not being able to have an adequate sleeponly results in adverse outcomes Having enough sleep will result in the individualbeing more psychologically functional and healthy.

Focusing on the college student population of Foreign Trade University, sleepdeprivation is also quite prevalent Academic obligations add to the body's stresses,which can contribute to sleep deprivation Exams, schoolwork, projects, peer pressure,and other factors put much strain on the body The student is exposed to more forces

as they go through their curriculum Their sleep pattern is characterized by insufficientsleep duration, delayed sleep onset, and the occurrence of napping episodes during theday A person who has been up for 17 hours has the cognitive capability equivalent tosomeone whose blood alcohol level is 0.05% (Okano et al., 2019) Poor quality sleephas significant impacts on daytime behavior and academic performance, as well asconcentration, attention, and mood

Over time, a student's health and academic performance may all suffer from sleepdeprivation So, researching how sleep affects the human body and looking into ways

to combat sleeplessness is crucial to tackle the problem of sleep deprivation

The research objectives are to find out if sleep deprivation impacts the academicperformance of Foreign Trade University students and if such impacts are significant.One must also be able to identify their level of sleep deprivation, what causes them to

reach this level, and look into ways to combat sleeplessness, such as optimal sleepinghabits to achieve an appropriate GPA.

Statement of the Problem

2 What is the level of impact of sleep deprivation on FTU students?

 Receptive Skills (listening and reading)

 Productive Skills (speaking and writing)

Significance of the Study

The result of this study may benefit the following:

a) Students: In this study, students may know more about why and how

they are affected by sleep deprivation in terms of academic performance Knowingthis helps them to limit their lack of sleep and study more efficiently

b) Parents: This study will inform parents about how sleep deprivation

affects their children academically This way, they can offer help or guide their childregarding academics Doing so might help them to have a night of higher-qualitysleep

c) Teachers: This may explain to teachers or professors the effect of sleep

deprivation on students' academic performance Hence, giving them a suitable number

of activities at home or replacing homework with extra activities during class

d) Future researchers: This study gives future researchers guidance and

references when doing another research related to this topic

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The research is limited to all students enrolled in FTU in Hanoi with ages rangingfrom 18 to 22 years old, excluding transferees, and is only for the academic year2021-2022 The scope of the research is the impact of sleep deprivation on academicperformance and its significance on a student's performance

The study does not include any other matters regarding sleep deprivation that are notrelated to academic performance This study only focuses on FTU students in Hanoi,

so the results may vary depending on the university

According to The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep ResearchSociety’s recommendation, the needed sleeping hours decreases as people get older –from 12-16 hours a day (including naps) as an infant to more than or equal to 7 hours

a day as an adult Most adults require between seven and nine hours of nightly sleep.Children and teenagers need substantially more sleep, particularly if they are youngerthan five years of age (Danielle Pacheco, 2022)

It can be inferred from the recommendation that as an adult (18 - 60 years old), anFTU student should spend at least seven hours a night sleeping.

b) Sleep deprivation

The term sleep deprivation refers to getting less than the recommended hours of sleep,which has been mentioned above However, not all definitions of sleep deprivation arethe same

In sleep medicine, sleep deprivation is defined based on sleep duration, which is thetotal amount of time a person spends asleep In reality, though, being well-rested isabout more than just how many hours you sleep As a result, the terms sleepdeficiency or sleep insufficiency are more frequently used to describe factors thatreduce the quantity and/or quality of sleep and keep a person from waking uprefreshed Even in the medical field, studies may use different technical definitions ofsleep deprivation as some classify it as seven hours of sleep or fewer while others usesix hours as the cutoff (Eric Suni, 2022)

The primary signs and symptoms of sleep deprivation include excessive daytimesleepiness and daytime impairment such as reduced concentration, slower thinking,and mood changes Feeling extremely tired during the day is one of the hallmark signs

of sleep deprivation People with excessive daytime sleepiness may feel drowsy andhave a hard time staying awake even when they need to (Eric Suni, 2022)

The effects of sleep deprivation and sleep deficiency can be severe and far-reaching.Acute sleep deprivation raises the risk of unintentional errors and accidents Drowsydriving can be life-threatening, which involves slowed reaction time and the risk of

microsleep People who are sleep deprived are more likely to struggle in school andwork settings or to experience mood changes that may affect personal relationships.(Eric Suni, 2022)

In this situation, our group is carrying research on “Impacts of Sleeping Deprivation

on Foreign Trade University Students Academic Performance”, and we might expect

that if a student is suffering from sleeping deprivation, his/her academic performancewould not be as good as when he/she got enough sleeping hours

Impacts of sleep deprivation on gender

Both women and men will suffer from sleep deprivation if they do not get enoughhours of sleep However, females are the unfortunate ones since researchers suggestthat they are more vulnerable to sleep deprivation compared to males

Women are 40% more likely to have insomnia than men Women are also nearlytwice as likely to suffer from anxiety and depression as men, two conditions stronglyassociated with insomnia (Danielle Pacheco, 2022) In the Penn State Sleep Cohort,was reported in 9.3% of the population studied with a higher incidence in women(12.9%) compared to men (6.2%) (Singareddy & partners) It is worth noting that therate of depression also becomes sexually distinct after puberty, becoming twice ascommon in girls compared to boys and is likely a contributing factor to the sexdivergence in insomnia (Swanson & partners)

Researchers pointed out that sleep deprivation has a more serious effect on womenthan on men so that it can be concluded that a woman who is lacking sleep, is likely to

be less productive and suffer more than a man with the same condition And our groupalso expected that if a student is suffering from sleep deprivation, his/her academicperformance would not be as good as when he/she got enough sleeping hours

So it means that if two Foreign Trade University students (a female student and a malestudent; suppose that they have the same level of knowledge) both do not have enoughhours of sleep, the academic performance of the male student might be better than that

of the female student

LITERATURE REVIEW

Sleep deprivation is a widespread problem among young adults (Adams et al., 2017)High rates of depressive symptoms are associated with irregular sleep duration amonguniversity students in 26 countries with different income levels (Peltzer and Pengpid,2015), leading to a justifiable concern for the problem

Factors affecting sleep

The determinants of sleep quality in college students vary from study to study and areclassified into different categories Causes of sleep deprivation can be attributed tofactors such as inadequate sleep hygiene, alcohol, caffeine, energy drinks, stimulants,technology use, and sleep disorders (Hershner and Chervin, 2014) During the Covid-

19 pandemic, the state of being confined at home and the participant’s gender are

factors that have been singled out to determine their effect on sleep quality (Pinto etal., 2020) Other factors affecting sleep, such as the influence of biological processes,electronic media, school start time, caffeine, and even chronic respiratory illnesses andobesity, have been reported to affect the sleep quality of adolescents and young adults(Owens et al., 2014).

According to a search string for articles between January 2007 and October 2017, thefactors affecting sleep quality can be summarized into four categories: lifestyle,mental health, social factors, and physical factors Lifestyle includes smoking habits,physical activity participation, eating diets, caffeine and stimulant use, alcoholconsumption, body mass index (BMI), use of media, sleeping patterns, sedentarybehaviors, and napping Mental health includes depression, psychiatric disorders,perceived levels of stress, as well as anxiety issues Social factors include problemssuch as social relationships, sleep awareness, racial discrimination, or academicperformance Physical factors include medication usage, diagnosed illness, pain, andfatigue (Wang and Bíró, 2021)

Relationship between sleep and academic performance

The effects of sleep, sleep quality, and sleep duration on academic performance wereinconsistent throughout the studies A curvilinear relation was reported between sleeptime and failing academic examinations Both long and short sleep duration couldlower the chances of passing examinations Furthermore, insomnia could also raise therisk of academic failure in higher education/ university students (Vedaa et al., 2019).Desjardins and Grandbois (2022), however, stated that rather than focusing on sleepduration primarily or exclusively as a cause for reduced sleep quality, we should focusinstead on sleep efficiency Their findings presented sleep efficiency, daytimedysfunction due to sleepiness, and sleep duration, in descending order, as theparameters most strongly associated with GPA This finding is validated by a meta-analysis of 11 included studies in a literature search of 4 databases (PubMed, Embase,CINAHL, and ERIC) in September and December 2020 However, it also revealedthat lack of consistencies in definitions and the use of different methodology may bethe cause of such conflicting results (Musshafen et al., 2021)

Another factor that should be noted when considering the findings of these researches

is their sample sizes, threats in data-collecting, and generalizability The study, based

on a national survey of Norwegian college and university students, albeit possessing arelatively large sample size (50054 students), may run the risk of having non-responsebias due to its relatively low response rate of 31% (Vedaa et al., 2019) In contrast,Desjardins and Grandbois (2022) have no issues with the response rate but insteadpertain to a small sample size of 105 participants

All of these studies are cross-sectional and deal with self-reported responses;therefore, they may run the risk of participants having recall bias and the inability todraw causal relationships from the findings Another common limitation is thesubjective assessment of sleep rather than an objective assessment in a laboratoryenvironment.

In addition to studies focusing on how sleep deprivation can affect academicperformance directly, other studies have determined the impact of sleep indirectlythrough other factors such as depression, physical health, and alcohol-relatedproblems Extreme sleep durations, both short and long, run the risk of developingdepression (Dong et al., 2022) A national cohort study in China reported that theprimary results expressed a significant relationship between sleep duration and BMI,especially short sleep duration and obesity (Gao et al., 2022) In another studyconducted in Brazil, Chile, and Spain amongst first-year undergraduate students, therisk of developing alcohol-related problems increased with worse subjective sleepquality The frequency of alcohol consumption has no effect on sleep quality nor sleepduration, however (Sirtoli et al., 2022)

Most of the studies in the literature review presented with similar results: insufficientsleep will lead to inadequate academic performances, direct or indirectly Sleep hasshown to be crucial to university students in multiple ways Therefore, the primaryaim of this study is to determine the extent to which sleep will affect undergraduatestudents during their 4 years of study, including their receptive and productive skills.The second aim is to determine the optimal hours to improve undergraduate students’GPA Another aim of the study is to compare the sleep quality, duration and academicperformance between students who major in economic and related fields with studentswho are pursuing other disciplines

Research gap

Most of the studies in the literature review presented with similar results: insufficientsleep will lead to inadequate academic performances, direct or indirectly Sleep hasshown to be crucial to university students in multiple ways Therefore, the primaryaim of this study is to determine the extent to which sleep will affect undergraduatestudents during their 4 years of study, including their receptive and productive skills.The second aim is to determine the optimal hours to improve undergraduate students’GPA

Another limitation of these aforementioned studies is their scope and subjects.Because most of these studies are carried out only in one country (Norwegian,Canada, China, etc), the findings of these studies cannot be generalized to other