Mary the Queen School of Malolos

Research in Daily Life

How Sleep Deprivation Affects Mary the

Queen’s Junior High School Student's

Memorizing Skills

Group 4

Erjoy Constantine Robles

Timothy Fernandez

Chrissie Anne Cunanan

AudrreyParza

Janine Rose Ronquillo

Jamillah Kaye Jimenez

Carl Jerome Cruz

11-Fortitude
 Chapter I

The Problem and its Background

INTRODUCTION

It is largely believed that a student’s sleep schedule affects how well their academic

performance is. It was found out that, sleep deprivation, although not apparent early on, would

prove to be a huge, and significant factor for a student’s test marks (Segall, 2001). This could

possibly be related to stress, a major root of is sleep deprivation (Latha, 2007), another generally

accepted factor for a steep decline in academic performance levels. This could be back up by a

study that states that poor sleep has a negative impact a teen’s morning mental faculty (Barrow,

2007).

According to a study, sleeping greatly helps in a student’s ability to retain knowledge

during a review session for a test (PT Staff, 2004). It can be said that with less stress from sleep

deprivation, which is usually achieved by having a good night’s rest after a review, would,

theoretically, improve a student’s academic performance, which, hopefully, will be touched upon

in the experiment. It is stated that, the neurochemical waste that remains in the brain gets

removed after a good rest (Chance, 2001). It also stated that, stress, as speculated earlier, does

indeed affect our mental capacity as stress destroys brain cells.

It should also be noted that, a teenager’s body is hardwired to a sleep time of 11p.m.

(Richter, 2015). A case with a direct conflict to the 8-hour sleep time that a teen needs,

preferably a few more hours. During a poll, about 75% of students sleep less than eight hours a

day and among these, the Grade 12 students only has a 3-percent rate that reported they sleep

enough, 8-10 hours a day (National Sleep Foundation [NSF], 2006)

 It can also be hypothesized that sleep deprivation among students can be traced back to a

messed up circadian rhythm (NSF, 2016), an internal biological clock that is controlled by our

hypothalamus and generally dictates how long and when we sleep. During adolescence, children

enter a “phase-delay” sleeping schedule where they have later sleep and wake times. Teenager’s

circadian rhythm shifts from preferring morning activity to evening active times (American

Academy of Pediatrics [AAP], 2014). This has been tightly tied with adolescents’ lifestyle,

especially that of which revolves around the use electronics. Children with various kinds of

electronics available within their bedroom or close to their bedroom have shown to have later

sleep times which then results to sleep deprivation (Owens, 2014).

Sleep is an integral aspect in a human’s life, it is even said that the average person will

spend a third of their lifetime asleep (NSF, 2015), though sleep is not yet fully understood by

scientists, many studies have been able to link sleep as an important factor in various mental

functions. This is why sleep deprivation can lead to various problems in mental ability, from

memory creation, decision making, and alertness.

Studies have shown that a lack of sleep can negatively affect one’s ability to focus and

one’s alertness (NSF, n.d.). Studies have also been able to show that sleep deprivation can hinder

the brain’s ability to obtain and retain information (Lim & Dingles, 2012) as well as its ability to

make decisions. Sleep deprivation is also a contributor to stress (Woolston, 2018) which is also

another factor in a diminished mental performance (Chance, 2001).

These studies are well documented and supported, other studies (Kilgore, 2010) have also

shown that sleep deprivation can significantly affect a person’s ability to reason and learn, going

a step further Alhola and Polo-Kantola (2007) have found that sleep deprivation has negative

effects on reaction time, memory tasks, visuomotor skills and reasoning skills in general.
 The aspect of cognitive ability we are most interested in looking at in this research paper

being memorization. The Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School (2007) has

stated that sleep deprivation can affect procedural and declarative memory, thus they say that

sleep is an important factor in one’s overall ability to learn. Memory, specifically working

memory, impacts not only learning ability but also impacts arithmetic ability, the ability to

remember verbal directions and the ability to follow directions (Melbourne Child Psychology,

n.d.)

A majority of these studies were conducted mostly on adults. However, we are interested

in discovering how sleep deprivation can specifically affect adolescent teenagers, particularly

regarding their ability to memorize. This is due to the more sensitive nature of the adolescent

brain to sleep deprivation (UCLA, n.d). We will also attempt to find out the factors that lead to

sleep deprivation in teenagers, with more focus being in more biological factors.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1. What are the factors that affect sleep deprivation?

2. How do these factors influence sleep deprivation?

3. How does sleep deprivation affect students and their memorizing skills?
 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The study would be able to help students, teachers and faculty, and future researchers in

determining important details regarding a student’s sleeping patterns and any factor or effect

involved.

For students, as the considerable main beneficiary of this study, they would be able to

adjust their habits to be able to reach an optimal state as much as possible to assist them in

improving their studies.

For teachers and faculty, they would be, as the management and decision makers, able to

make major changes that would improve the system being implemented and make room for more

improvements in regards to sleeping conditions of their students.

As for future researchers, this study would be a good reference point if ever there is a

need to add additional details to future studies related to sleeping. More specifically, for

researchers focusing on the same area of ethnicity as the subjects in this paper.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF STUDY

The study will focus on finding out the factors that cause sleep deprivation and their

direct effects on the memorization ability junior high school students of Mary the Queen School

of Malolos.

The target demographic would be of adolescent age and their general performance in

school would be taken into account, however a greater emphasis will be put on their ability to

formulate, store and restore memory.

 Other determining factors to the effect and cause of sleep deprivation such as culture,

religion, socioeconomic status, would be disregarded due to the overly large scope of the

parameters.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

REM Sleep - Stands for Rapid Eye Movement and is one of the five stages of sleep, it is thought

to be involved in the process of storing memories, learning, and balancing your mood,

Acquisition - Refers to the introduction of new information to the brain.

Consolidation- Refers to the stabilization of memory in the brain.

Recall- Refers to the brain's ability to access previously stored information in the brain.

Declarative memory- Also called Explicit memory. Deals in the memory of facts, data, and

events.

Procedural memory- A part of the long-term memory that is responsible for knowing how to do

things.

Working memory - the part of short-term memory that is concerned with immediate conscious
perceptual and linguistic processing.
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