Tiffany Goh

Effects of Exercise on Quality of Sleep

Abstract Aim: To discern the effects of exercise on the quality of sleep Method: Psychology class participants; experimental group exercises before sleep, control group does not. Results: Experimental group got overall worse quality sleep than control group. Conclusion: Difference obtained most likely due to chance and lack of controls for extraneous variables. This investigation aims to provide insight on whether having exercise will affect a persons quality of sleep. Hypothesis: Participants of the experiment who got exercise before sleeping will experience better quality sleep as compared to participants who did not; due to a change on brain pattern, which aids in relaxing. Previous research, notably the study from the Journal of Adolescent Health, has concluded with more athletic experiment participants having better quality sleep. The study consisted of 434 Swiss teenagers, 258 of which were athletes. The athletes, overall, reported fewer awakenings during the night, were less sleepy and had better concentration during the day. Participants who get exercise should have better quality sleep as exercise has several health benefits, which can aid in improving sleep quality. These benefits include improvement to mood, a factor which can affect how well a person sleeps.

The independent variable will be whether or not participants exercise before they sleep; the dependant variable will be the quality of their sleep.

Method
Participants: The sample population is a Year 12 Psychology class from Glen Waverley Secondary College. Materials: Timers/clocks (participants own) Beds (participants own)

Procedure: The population will be separated equally into two groups, the control group and the experimental group. The control group will have no exercise before sleeping the night before school. The experimental group will have 20 minutes of exercise before sleeping on the night before school. (timers/clocks used to measure time. In class, the participants from each group will rate the quality of their sleep on a scale of 1 to 5. Hours of sleep are also accounted for. The results of each group will be compared to each other.

Results
Rating for Quality of Sleep 1 2 3 4 No. for Experimental Group 1 1 2 6 5 6 No. for Control Group

Average: 3.3 quality

1 Average: 3.7 quality

Hours of Sleep for each participant: Experimental Group 5 6.5 8 8 8 4 6 7 9 7 Average: 6.9 hours

Hours of Sleep for each participant: Control Group 7 6 7 6 8 8 7 7.5 7 4.8 Average: 6.7 hours

The results indicate that participants who exercised before sleep had a marginally lower quality of sleep (average of 0.4 lower) than participants who did not exercise. However, participants who exercised before sleep had slightly more sleep than those who did not exercise on average, making an average difference of 0.2 hours.

Discussion
Statistical significance P value for amount of sleep: 0.07 P value for quality of sleep: 0.05 The results, as a whole, do not support with the hypothesis. The P value for each factor observed (amount and quality of sleep), are 0.07 and 0.05 respectively. These are very slim differences, which would suggest that the results obtained from the experiment are likely due to chance, and hence unacceptable.

The slim differences may be due to various extraneous variables that have not been considered, such as the amount of exercise each participant usually gets, the health of the participants, the time the participant chose to go to sleep, and the stress of the exercise undertaken. Such variables would have affected the quality of the sleep. The amount of exercise usually undertaken affects the fitness of the participant, and thus as stated in the introduction, the brainwave pattern may have differed from those who did not usually exercise. Furthermore, participants who do not usually exercise would have found the sudden exertion of the body exhausting, and hence have more fitful sleeps due to discomfort of the strains. Past research, too is not supported by this study. The study from the Journal of Adolescent Health resulted in athletic participants who had better quality sleep as well as less time taken to fall asleep. This contrasts with the results of this study; participants who exercised before sleep had less quality sleep than participants who did not exercise, averaging on the ratings of 3.3 and 3.7 respectively. In conclusion, the results of this experiment were made by chance, and cannot be generalized to the whole population. There were too many extraneous variables involved; the amount of exercise each participant usually gets, the health of the participants, the time the participant chose to go to sleep, and the stress of the exercise undertaken. Steps can be taken in a new study to ensure these variables are controlled. A specific category of people should be picked for the experiment, separated into the normally athletic and normally non-athletic. The participants should all be of equal health, with no long-term illness affecting them, they should all go to bed at the same time, and the ones exercising should be practicing a single exercise only, such as jumping jacks or jogging. References: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sleeping-angels/200908/exercisemore-and-get-better-nights-sleep