Chapter Thirteen

Chapter 13 is about organizing our final paper. The first section deals with choosing a pattern. Examples of patterns include chronology, descriptions, cause/effect, process explanation, problem/solution, and more. Depending on our purpose, our role as a writer, and how our argument is best formatted influences our choice in patterns. The second section gives us strategies for arranging our argument. The first is labeling sources so you can quickly figure out where you will use them (Introduction, Part I, etc). The second strategy is to group our sources by the labels into files, folders, etc. A third strategy is clustering: arranging sources around your thesis statement and drawing relations between topics. The fourth strategy, mapping, is similar: it involves arranging sources into a timeline or visually seeing how one argument builds to another. The final section in chapter 13 is about forming an outline for our papers. There are informal and formal outlines, which include topical and sentence outlines.

We are working on writing our outlines, rationale, and abstract in class this week, so chapter 13 is very appropriate. Choosing a pattern is important, and being conscious of your pattern with help maintain consistency throughout your paper. We have already spent some time arranging our sources, as we grouped them together in our literature reviews last week. I thought the mapping strategy was interesting, though I don't think it will be particularly helpful for my paper. I appreciated the explanation of different outlines and their purposes. I had to write a sentence outline for my biology class and it's much easier to see exactly where the paper is going. Overall, I think chapter 13 teaches us that whatever patterns, strategies, and outlines we use, it's important to think about what will make it easy for the reader to follow our argument.

Literature Review

Lydia Sedy

English 102 - T/TH 1:00pm

Prof. Sonia Apgar Begert

29 May 15

Literature Review

Many college students are known for procrastination, all nighter study sessions before exams, and similar activities that seriously affect sleep schedules. This project will look at how poor quality sleep has a number of negative consequences, encouraging students and teachers alike to consider their sleep schedules an important aspect of their life. Sources used for this project fall into five general categories: the first defines negative sleep habits and the next four explore sleep’s effects on learning/memory, academic performance, behavioral functioning, and overall body health.

A number of excellent studies expose negative sleep habits in the United States. The National Sleep Foundation published an article on their website in 2008 titled “Longer Work Days Leave Americans Nodding Off On the Job,” summarizing the 2008 Sleep in America poll. They observe that 65% of Americans report having sleep problems. These include fragmented sleep, defined as repeatedly interrupted sleep, difficulty falling asleep, or not feeling refreshed upon awakening. More than half of the responders also built up a sleep debt during the weekend. This is defined as not sleeping enough during the week and then “catching up” on lost hours during the weekend. This behavior was studied by Jaques Taillard, Pierre Philip, and Bernard Bioulac in their article "Morningness/Eveningness and the Need for Sleep” which was published in the Journal of Sleep Research in 1999. This study examines the effects of morning/eveningness on daytime sleepiness. One particular characteristic of Eveningness is building up a sleep debt, as well as going to bed and waking at later times of day. 617 participants completed a variety of questionnaires, out of which the authors found a clear link between daytime sleepiness and sleep debt.

Has our society been sleeping less over the years? Yu Sun Bin, Nathaniel Marshall, and Nick Glozier sought to answer this question in their study "Sleeping at the Limits: The Changing Prevalence of Short and Long Sleep Durations in 10 Countries” published in 2013 in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The authors analyzed cross-sectional surveys for 10 countries conducted in the past three decades. The differences in survey methods do not enable you to compare countries, but for our purposes we will isolate the United States. The authors found that in 1985, of 3,000 survey participants, 11.7% reported regularly sleeping less than 6 hours. By 2007, this number dropped to 9.2% in the over 11,000 survey participants that responded. The authors describe this idea that we are sleeping less might be derived from the fact that people generally sleep less as they get older, skewing our perceptions of actual change. This does seem to contradict what some studies report, as the 2001-2002 Sleep in America poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation found that from 1960-2002, self reported sleep duration had decreased, the average respondents sleeping around 8.5 hours in 1960 to 7 hours in 2002.

A significant trend in the research of sleep concerns sleep’s effect on memory and learning. Dang-Vu and colleagues determine many aspects of this in their article “A role for sleep in brain plasticity” published in 2006 in Pediatric Rehabilitation. Their extensive, scientific study refers to over 200 references to support their arguments. A number of specific processes and how sleep affects them are carefully studied, including neural development, consolidation of memories, reactivations of neurons during sleep, neurotransmitter levels, gene transcription, and protein synthesis. Many of these processes are associated with both learning and memory. Particularly of note was that the authors found extensive evidence for role of sleep in brain development. They also found that during sleep, neurons “repeat” activations to incorporate experiences into long term memory. Pierre Maquet conducted a similar study in his article, “The Role of Sleep in Learning and Memory” published in the 2001 New Series issue of Science. Marquet carefully tracked brain activities during sleep, and found distinctive patterns that matched the activity recorded while awake. This suggests memories are repossessed or “consolidated” during sleep. Marquet also found that subjects who were allowed to sleep after training performed significantly better on later tests. Although both of these studies are preliminary, they speak to the significant role of sleep in memory.

One way to study the importance of sleep is to observe what goes wrong without it. Tina Saey reports about a study on fragmented sleep and memory in her article, “Sleep Interruptions Erode Memory” which appeared in the 2011 edition of Science News. This study particularly examined the need for continuous sleep in mice. The mice were introduced to new objects, and then expected to sleep. Their sleep was interrupted once every minute for an extended period of time. In previous studies, waking mice can cause stress and add other factors to the study that affect the results. In this version, a light-sensing protein was introduced into the brain, so that by stimulating the cells, you can “wake” the mice without adding stress. This more accurate experiment found that mice who got interrupted sleep could not remember the objects they had seen before, and treated them just like new objects. Although the study is on mice and not humans, it expresses a strong relationship between sleep and memory. M. Gradisar and colleagues narrow their study to working memory, as seen in their article "Adolescent Sleep and Working Memory Performance," published in Sleep and Biological Rhythms in 2008. The authors examined the correlation between insufficient sleep in adolescents and working memory performance. Working memory is defined as “the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information while performing complex cognitive tasks.” One task required students to remember a sequence of numbers and then later “operate” on the numbers, for example, by changing the order in which they appeared. The authors found that students who had slept less did not perform as well on the tests, specifically the more complex tasks that involved manipulating the information. Students who got the optimal eight to nine hours of sleep took less time to fall asleep and had less daytime sleepiness, which also contributed to better results on the tasks. Again, another study which shows the role of sleep in memory.

If sleep has such a significant effect on memory, does it affect academic performance? I found several studies attempting to answer this question, among them the notable Mickey Trockel, Michael Barnes, and Dennis Egget and their article “Health-Related Variables and Academic Performance Among First-Year College Students: Implications for Sleep and Other Behaviors.” Published in 2000 in Journal of American College Health. The authors explore the effects of many health-related variables on the GPAs of random students. Variables included sleep habits, work hours, exercise, spiritual health, nutrition, and social support. Of the 31 variables surveyed, sleep habits, such as wake time, bedtime, and total sleep time, showed the most significant correlation with higher GPAs. Jane Gaultney specifically examines sleep and GPAs in her study “The Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in College Students: Impact on Academic Performance.” which appeared in the same journal, Journal of American College Health, in 2010. 1,845 students took part in her survey, and their GPAs were obtained from the registrar’s office to prevent any bias. Gaultney did find that GPAs were significantly correlated with the amount of sleep the students received, however while they were evident, those correlations were “weak.” Gaultney warns readers the relationship between sleep and GPAs has not been proven to be cause-and-effect. However, the evidence of sleep having some play in academic performance is being explored more and more. Yu-Chih Chiang and colleagues’ recent 2014 study, “The Effects of Sleep on Academic Performance and Job Performance.” appeared in College Student Journal. This study examines the effects of poor sleep on academic performance and also included job performance. The authors formed an online questionnaire, and student GPAs were obtained from the registrar’s office to prevent bias. It was found that students who had trouble falling asleep had lower GPAs. William Kelly, Kathryn Kelly, and Robert Clanton completed yet another study on the correlation titled, "The Relationship Between Sleep Length and Grade-Point Average Among College Students." which appeared in an earlier edition of College Student Journal in 2001. The study did find that students who slept nine or more hours every 24 had a higher GPA on average. However, students who slept the average amount (7-8 hours) did not have significantly different GPAs from short sleepers (6 hours or less).

Amy Wolfson and Mary Carskadon also explored academic success as well as a variety of other things in their study “Sleep Schedules and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents.” published in Child Development in 1998. A survey was given to 3,120 students from four schools in Rhode Island. The survey considered sleep time, bedtime, and risetime during school-nights and weekends, as well as academic performance, daytime sleepiness, sleep/wake problems, and depressive mood. The authors found that students reporting B’s or better had more total sleep time and generally earlier bedtimes. Student’s reporting C’s or worse reportedly slept less and went to bed later.

Although each study I have cited warns that it is difficult to prove a cause and effect relationship between sleep and academic performance, the correlation has been repeatedly observed, and sleep should be considered an important asset for academic success.

Another trend in the sources I have reviewed involves sleep’s effect on behavioral functions. Wolfson’s and Carskadon’s study, mentioned above, also examines on sleep’s effect on behaviors. They found that students who slept less than an adequate amount had more sleep/wake issues, “such as [arriving] late to class because of oversleeping, [being] tired or dragged out nearly every day, or [needing] more than one reminder to get up.” They also reported more daytime sleepiness and depressive moods. Avi Sadeh, Reut Gruber, and Amiram Raviv’s more recent study, “Sleep, Neurobehavioral Functioning, and Behavior Problems in School-Age Children.” published in 2002 in Child Development, had similar results. The authors explored how sleep affects neurobehavioral functioning (NBF) in school-aged children. The children’s sleep habits were assessed by wearing a small actigraph on their wrist while they slept. This device records sleep activities throughout the night. A series of six tests, measuring motor speed, reaction time, omission/commission errors, and digit learning was then conducted twice each day. Correlations between sleep quality and test performance suggest that children who got poor quality sleep had greater problems with attention, reaction, and behavior regulation. The following year, Sadeh and his team conducted a more narrowed study, “The Effects of Sleep Restriction and Extension on School-Age Children: What a Difference an Hour Makes” which appeared in the 2003 edition of Child Development. Their aim was to look particularly on the effects of a minimal difference in sleep time on NBF, ranging from 30 minutes to one hour. This was done to reflect the regular changes that may result in a child's day to day life. They found that extension of sleep led to improved memory function and improved performance on a complex reaction test, behaviors they report have been correlated with classroom behaviors in the past.

Sadeh and his team are not the only ones investigating sleep’s effect on behaviors. Richard Millman’s study, published in 2005 in Pediatrics, titled “Excessive Sleepiness in Adolescents and Young Adults: Causes, Consequences, and Treatment Strategies”, also supports their work. Millman reviewed 150 other studies, articles, and publications to explore changes in adolescents sleep patterns, define factors of chronic insufficient sleep, explain the effect of insufficient sleep on a number of functions, and report common sleep disorders and solutions. Millman found extensive support that daytime sleepiness (caused by less total sleep time or fragmented sleep) has negative effects on performance and cognitive abilities, such as decision making and judgement, lack of attention, and the tendency to fall asleep in class. Also, sleep fragmentation has been found to cause irritability and depressive moods. Carlos Schenck reported similar findings in his book Sleep: A Groundbreaking Guide to the Mysteries, the Problems, and the Solutions published by the Penguin Group in 2007. He gives a broad scope of information on sleep, mostly discussing sleep disorders, such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and more serious issues such as sleepwalking and other parasomnias. However, Schenck lists many consequences of inadequate sleep, including decreased concentration and decision-making abilities, irritability, and frustration.

One of the most interesting studies I found on sleep and behavior was by Samantha Clickinbeard and colleagues, titled "Sleep and Delinquency: Does the Amount of Sleep Matter?" published in the Journal of Youth & Adolescence in 2011. This study examines delinquent behavior in adolescents and the amount of hours they slept.  The authors state that their findings should be repeated before considered absolute, but they did find that children who slept less were involved in more property delinquency. The authors also acknowledge that the correlation between sleep and delinquency might not be causational, and that the sleep problems themselves may be a cause of other issues with self-control. However, the evident link between sleep loss and more delinquency is very interesting.

A trend that cannot be ignored in this field is sleep’s effect on physical health. Shih-Yu Lee and colleagues explore this in their article, “Stress and Sleep Disturbances in Female College Students” published in the American Journal of Health Behavior in 2013. The authors aim to define the relationships between sleep, stress, and wellbeing, particularly looking at depressive and physical symptoms. They had 103 female students record their sleep habits for 7 days, and take a standardized questionnaire. Lee and colleagues found that women who had poor quality sleep had more daytime fatigue and worse depressive and physical symptoms. Participants who experienced less sleep time overall also expressed the same problems. Mary Wells and Bradley V. Vaughn found similar results in their study "Poor Sleep Challenging the Health of a Nation." Published in 2012 in the  Neurodiagnostic Journal. The authors reviewed over 80 credible sources, from scientific studies to government agencies, aiming to give a comprehensive report on the negative effects of poor sleep. Throughout their research, they found poor sleep contributing to major disasters, such as the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion or the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. Other themes included sleep’s impact on performance and productivity, stress, and health and mortality. They found that insufficient sleep was correlated with many chronic issues such as heart disease, stroke, depression, and diabetes.

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter 19 deals with how to format documents and presentations. There are examples for academic essays, multimodal essays, articles, websites, oral presentations, multimedia presentations, and posters. Each section considers the purpose of your project, and how the aspects of that format can best work for you. For example, if using sound or many visuals is really important to voicing your argument, a multimodal essay or website might be best. The next thing to consider is the audience's expectations. Reader's of academic essays usually want wide margins and double spacing, whereas articles are expected to be written in columns with justified alignment. The Bedford Researcher also gives annotated examples of each format at the end of it's section. The only section done differently is the oral presentations section. This is much longer and has more advice, particularly for narrowing your topic and creating a speaker's outline and notes.

We are writing our papers in the form of academic essays, so much of chapter 19 does not apply to our class. However, it is still interesting to see information presented in different ways! I have a presentation for my biology class as well, so I appreciated the part on multimedia presentations. The main things we should be concerned about for this class are using formats to best present our information and to meet the reader's expectations.

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter 18 is about design principles and how to use them effectively. Balance is one of the things to consider. Using symmetrical or asymmetrical alignment can lead your reader's eye to focus on important portions. Emphasis involves using headings and subheadings to catch your readers' attention. Placement is another important one. Pull quotes or images should be placed near the text that is most pertinent to them. Repetition helps establish consistency, whether it be with page numbers or identifying logos. Consistency itself is important. Using the same elements throughout your paper allows them to work for the reader's benefit. Throughout the design process, you should deeply consider your purpose and your readers. Ask yourself how design aspects can help you accomplish your purposes. Think about the reader and help them understand the format of your paper and easily locate information.

Chapter 18 is important to us as we write because it proper design has a great effect on our readers. The overall "togetherness" of a finished paper is like a first impression: you want it to look good. I thought the part about fonts was interesting. I noticed the headings and such will be different fonts from the text body, but I didn't know how that was decided. The visual of the serif and sans-serif comparison was helpful. You can also use colors and shading to separate sections. The Bedford reader itself does this, with black italic, and red or blue bold headings for certain sections. The consistency throughout all the chapters makes it easier as a reader to skim and find information.

Annotated Bibliography

Lydia Sedy

Prof. Sonia Apgar Begert

English 102

22 May 2015

Annotated Bibliography

Bin, Yu Sun, Nathaniel S. Marshall, and Nick Glozier. "Sleeping at the Limits: The Changing Prevalence of Short and Long Sleep Durations in 10 Countries." American Journal of Epidemiology 177.8 (2013): 826-33. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

It is commonly said that the prevalence of short sleep lengths is increasing in our society. This study seeks to examine that exact question, analyzing cross-sectional surveys for 10 countries in the past three decades. The differences in survey methods do not enable you to compare countries, which is fine because I think that is beyond the scope of my paper. As far as the United States is concerned, the authors found that in 1985, of 3,000 survey participants, 11.7% reported regularly sleeping less than 6 hours. By 2007, this number dropped to 9.2% in the over 11,000 survey participants that responded. These numbers are interesting, as they contradict what other articles claim and what the population expresses. The authors describe this idea that we are sleeping less might be derived from the fact that people generally sleep less as they get older, skewing our perceptions of actual change. Although this source does not add a supporting voice to my claims, I can use it to present an alternate view on how much society sleeps as a whole.

Carrell, Scott E., Teny Maghakian, and James E. West. “A's from Zzzz's? T he Causal Effect of School Start Time on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 3.3 (2011): 62-81. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.

The authors explore why teens are sleep-deprived, specifically looking at the effects of early school start times. They studied students attending United States Air Force Academy to take advantage of the more controlled environment, and found that students who were assigned early morning classes had worse grades in those classes and in their classes later the same day. I had originally thought this source would be helpful to my argument but I am not so sure now. The study is more specifically geared towards school start time and academic success, not sleep length and academic success. (All students woke at the same time, regardless of class times). In its conclusion it does suggest the importance of circadian rhythms on academic performance, but I don’t think that will apply to my paper’s scope. I will keep it in mind but I think I will have better results with time spent understanding other sources.

Chiang, Yu-Chih, et al. “The Effects of Sleep on Academic Performance and Job Performance.” College Student Journal 48.1 (2014): 72-87. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 May 2015.

This study examines the effects of poor sleep on academic and job performance. An online questionnaire was formed, and student GPAs were obtained from the registrar’s office to prevent bias. The authors found that students who had trouble falling asleep had lower GPAs. Poor sleep also significantly affected job quality, particularly in the “hospitality industry” where schedules are more demanding and change frequently. I can use this study as another support to claim that sleep significantly affects job performance and academic performance.

Clickinbeard, Samantha, et al. "Sleep and Delinquency: Does the Amount of Sleep Matter?" Journal of Youth & Adolescence 40.7 (2011): 916-30. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

This study aims to answer the question, “Does the amount of sleep matter?” by examining delinquent behavior in adolescents and the amount of hours they slept.  The authors state that their findings should be repeated before considered absolute, but they did find that children who slept less were involved in more property delinquency. The authors also acknowledge that the correlation between sleep and delinquency might not be causational, and that the sleep problems themselves may be a cause of other issues with self-control. I can still use this study to support the argument that insufficient sleep impairs some cognitive functioning like decision making.

Dang-Vu, T.T., et al. “A role for sleep in brain plasticity.” Pediatric Rehabilitation 9.2 (2006): 98-118. EBSCOHost. Web. 11 May 2015.

This article is an extensive, scientific study on the effects sleep has on brain plasticity. The authors refer to over 200 references to support their arguments. A number of specific processes are carefully studied, including neural development and REM sleep, consolidation of memories, reactivations of neurons during sleep, neurotransmitter levels, gene transcription, and protein synthesis. The authors explain several limitations of the studies, and warn readers to critically use data, as many of these studies are recent, preliminary findings. However, the information is fascinating, and will be valuable in supporting my arguments. I plan to particularly cite the role of sleep in brain development and the findings that neurons ‘repeat’ activations to incorporate experiences into long term memory.

Gaultney, Jane F. “The Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in College Students: Impact on Academic Performance.” Journal of American College Health. 59.2 (2010): 91-97. EBSCOHost. Web. 11 May 2015.

The purpose of this study was to look at sleep disorders in college students, and what effect they had on grade point average (GPA). 1,845 students took part in the survey, and their GPAs were obtained from the registrar’s office to prevent any bias. The author did find that GPAs were significantly correlated with the amount of sleep the students received, however those correlations were “weak,” and Gaultney warns readers to interpret findings cautiously. The relationship between sleep and GPAs has not been proven to be cause-and-effect, however, I think I can still use it in my paper to cite another source that has found support for the hypothesis.

Gradisar, M., et al. "Adolescent Sleep and Working Memory Performance." Sleep and Biological Rhythms 6.3 (2008): 146-54. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

This study examined the correlation between insufficient sleep in adolescents and working memory performance. Working memory is defined as “the ability to temporarily store and manipulate information while performing complex cognitive tasks.” One task required students to remember a sequence of numbers and then later “operate” on the numbers, for example, by changing the order in which they appeared. The authors did find that students who had slept less did not perform as well on the tests, specifically the more complex tasks that involved manipulating the information. Students who got the optimal eight to nine hours of sleep took less time to fall asleep and had less daytime sleepiness, which contributed to better results on the tasks. I can use this study to provide more evidence that poor sleep does interfere with complex brain processes such as memory.

Kelly, William E., Kathryn E. Kelly, and Robert C. Clanton. "The Relationship Between Sleep Length and Grade-Point Average Among College Students." College Student Journal 35.1 (2001): 84. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Apr. 2015.

This study explores the idea that students who sleep less have lower GPAs. The study did find that students who slept longer than nine or more hours every 24 had a higher GPA on average. However, students who slept the average amount (7-8 hours) did not have significantly different GPAs from short sleepers (6 hours or less). I can use this source to support the claim that long sleep is beneficial in the academic environment.

Lee, Shih-Yu, et al. “Stress and Sleep Disturbances in Female College Students.” American Journal of Health Behavior 37.6 (2013): 851-58. EBSCOHost. Web. 11 May 2015.

Anyone would agree that college can be stressful, and that students probably don’t have the best sleep habits. This study aims to define the relationships between sleep, stress, and wellbeing, particularly looking at depressive and physical symptoms. The authors had 103 female students record their sleep habits for 7 days, and then take a standardized questionnaire. Lee and colleagues found that women who had poor quality sleep had more daytime fatigue and worse depressive and physical symptoms. Also, participants who experienced less sleep time overall expressed the same problems. Although this study has limitations, as it is relying on self-reported information, I can still use it to describe some of the adverse effects that poor sleep has on health.

“Longer Work Days Leave Americans Nodding Off On the Job.” National Sleep Foundation. National Sleep Foundation. 3 Mar. 2008. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

This article is a summary of the 2008 Sleep in America poll, conducted by the National Sleep Foundation. It is filled with all sorts of findings related to work, shifts, and sleep quality. I think the most pertinent to my project are the facts that 65% of Americans report having sleep problems, including fragmented sleep, difficulty falling asleep, or not feeling refreshed upon awakening. More than half of the responders build up a sleep debt and “catch up” on lost hours during the weekend. (Other studies show this to be destructive). And 32% reported driving drowsy at least once a month. At the end of the article, some tips for healthy sleep hygiene are given, which might come in handy for my paper. I can also use the data to express some numbers in our society and give an idea of how our country perceives the importance of sleep.

Maquet, Pierre. “The Role of Sleep in Learning and Memory.”Science, New Series 294.5544 (2001): 1048-52. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.

Marquet’s goal is to explore the role of sleep in brain plasticity, specifically to give more evidence that neurons are involved in processing memory during sleep. Although he recognizes issues the study doesn’t address and elements that should be researched further, Marquet finds that sleep is involved with and benefits the consolidation of memories. Consolidating memories includes re-activating neural paths, analyzing them, and possibly strengthening them for long-term memory. Some brain activities were carefully tracked during sleep, and were found to match the activity recorded while awake. This suggests memories are repossessed during sleep. Marquet also found that subjects who were allowed to sleep after training performed significantly better on later tests.  Although there is a lot of great information in this source, the evidence is preliminary and I need to be mindful of that. I think if I am fair in the way I present it, the reader can learn a lot in support of my argument that sleep is important to memory and learning.

Millman, Richard P. “Excessive Sleepiness in Adolescents and Young Adults: Causes, Consequences, and Treatment Strategies.” Pediatrics 115.6 (2005): 1774-86. EBSCOHost. Web. 11 May 2015.

This article is a review of 150 other studies, articles, and publications. The author’s goal was to explore changes in adolescents sleep patterns, define factors of chronic insufficient sleep, explain the effect of insufficient sleep on a number of functions, and report common sleep disorders and solutions. Millman found a lot of support that daytime sleepiness (caused by less total sleep time or fragmented sleep) has negative effects on performance and cognitive abilities. Some of the studies he reviewed are ones I am using for my project (Wolfson and Carskadon, Trockel et al, Kelly et al) so it was interesting to see them briefly summarized and analyzed. The way the author has condensed a massive amount of findings into understandable chunks makes the topic much more understandable. I’m not sure how I will use it, as this is a secondary source. Even if it doesn’t end up in my paper, I will probably count it as a reference.

Saey, Tina Hesman. Sleep Interruptions Erode Memory.” Science News 180.5 (2011): 9. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.

This article reports about a study that focused on the need for continuous sleep in mice. The mice were introduced to new objects, and then tried to sleep. Their sleep was interrupted once every minute, for four hours. In previous studies, waking mice can cause stress and add other factors to the study that effect the results. In this study, a light-sensing protein was introduced into the brain, so that by stimulating the cells, you can “wake” the mice without stressing them out. This more accurate experiment found that mice who got interrupted sleep could not remember the objects they had seen before, and treated them just like new objects. Although the study is on mice and not humans, I think it still expresses there is a biological need for sleep, and I can use that in my project.

Sadeh, Avi, Reut Gruber, and Amiram Raviv. “Sleep, Neurobehavioral Functioning, and Behavior Problems in School-Age Children.” Child Development 73.2 (2002): 405-17. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.

This study explores how sleep affects neurobehavioral functioning (NBF) in school-aged children. The children’s sleep habits were assessed by wearing a small actigraph on their wrist while they slept. This device records sleep activities throughout the night. A series of six tests, measuring motor speed, reaction time, omission/commission errors, and digit learning was then conducted twice each day. Correlations between sleep quality and test performance suggest that children who got poor quality sleep had greater problems with attention, reaction, and behavior regulation. I can use this study to support my argument that sleep significantly affects processes like behavior and attention.

---. “The Effects of Sleep Restriction and Extension on School-Age Children: What a Difference an Hour Makes.” Child Development 74.2 (2003): 444-55. JSTOR. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.

This study, done by the same team as above, explores the effects of restricting and extending children’s sleep time on their neurobehavioral functioning (BNF). The authors’ aim was to look particularly on the effects of a minimal difference in sleep times, ranging from 30 minutes to one hour. This was done to reflect the regular changes that may result in a child's day to day life. They found that extension of sleep led to improved memory function and improved performance on a complex reaction test. I can use this source to again support for the argument that even small changes in sleep schedules affects important processes in the brain and should be considered a valuable asset in academic achievement.

Schenck, Carlos H. Sleep: A Groundbreaking Guide to the Mysteries, the Problems, and the Solutions. New York: Penguin Group. 2007. Print.

This book gives a broad scope of information on sleep. It is written as a guide, so the majority of it is spent discussing sleep disorders, such as insomnia, sleep apnea, and more serious issues such as sleepwalking and other parasomnias. I think the most valuable parts for me are the introduction and first chapter, which describe the clear importance of sleep. Although there is controversy on what sleep’s primary function is, we can easily study what goes wrong without sleep. Schenk reports a long list of things, including decrease concentration and decision-making abilities, frustration, and more. I can use this source to offer another variety of voice in my argument that sleep really is important.

Taillard, Jaques, Pierre Philip, and Bernard Bioulac. "Morningness/Eveningness and the Need for Sleep." Journal of Sleep Research 8.4 (1999): 291-95. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

This study examines the effects of morning/eveningness on daytime sleepiness. Eveningness is defined as going to bed and waking at later times of day, spending less time sleeping during the week, and then compensating by sleeping more in the weekend (building a “sleep debt”).  Although the authors did find that subjects who accumulated a weekday dept of sleep dealt with more drowsiness during the day, the evening-types did not report feeling more sleepy. A number of explanations were given, including the report that evening-types drank significantly more coffee. The big conclusion of this study is that people react differently to sleep deprivation, especially evening-types. Although this study isn’t very conclusive, I can use it to support an argument that sleeping less in the week and building asleep debt does relate to more sleepiness in the daytime.

Trockel, Michey T., Michael D Barnes, and Dennis L. Egget. “Health-Related Variables and Academic Performance Among First-Year College Students: Implications for Sleep and Other Behaviors.” Journal of American College Health 49.3 (2000): 125-31. EBSCOHost. Web. 11 May 2015.

This study explores the effect of many health-related variables on the GPAs of random students. Some of the variables included sleep habits, work hours, exercise, spiritual health, nutrition, and social support. Of the 31 variables surveyed, sleep habits, such as wake up time, bedtime, and total sleep time, showed the most significant positive correlation with GPA. The authors warn readers that this is preliminary work and needs more support, but I think if presented correctly, I can still use the results to support my argument that sleep does affect academic performance.

Wells, Mary Ellen, and Bradley V. Vaughn. "Poor Sleep Challenging the Health of a Nation." Neurodiagnostic Journal 52.3 (2012): 233-49. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Apr. 2015.

This study’s goal was to examine and then report the wide range of effects that sleep has on our society. The authors reviewed over 80 credible sources, from scientific studies to government agencies. They grouped information according to themes, and then condensed the findings, similar to a literature review. Throughout their research, they found poor sleep contributing to major disasters. For example, a study on the cause of the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion. Other themes included sleep’s impact on performance and productivity, stress, and drowsy driving, citing that “1,550 deaths and 71,000 injuries each year are a direct result of driver fatigue.” Further topics explore the impact on healthcare and the economy. This article is a secondary source so I will need to be careful when using it, but it offers such a wide range of information supporting a lot of my arguments, I think it will be a valuable source for my research project.

Wolfson, Amy R., and Mary A. Carskadon. “Sleep Schedules and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents.” Child Development 69.4 (1998): 875-87. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.

Various surveys, studies, and polls have shown quite consistently that teens do not get enough sleep. This study looks specifically at how adolescent's sleep schedules affect their daytime functioning. A survey was given to 3,120 students at four schools in Rhode Island. The survey considered sleep time, bedtime, and risetime during school-nights and weekends, as well as school performance, daytime sleepiness, sleep/wake problems, and depressive mood. The authors found that in general, students with both short sleep and irregular sleep schedules reported more sleepiness, more depressed mood, and greater problems with sleep/wake behaviors (than did adequate sleepers). They do explain how different variables, such as family situations, can also affect sleep schedules and grades, so this one study cannot prove a direct causation between sleep and good grades. However, I believe I can still use it to describe the importance of maintaining a regular and adequate sleep schedule, and how it affects many areas, such as academic performance, mood, and behavior.

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter sixteen concerns writing with style. This chapter goes through some basic pointers on appropriate style. The first is to write concisely. This can be done by removing modifiers (many, some, lots, really, very), removing unnecessary introductory phrases, and by using less words (use always instead of at all times). The next tip is about using active or passive voices to best voice your evidence, whether you want the emphasis to be on the actor or the recipient. It’s important to keep a consistent point of view (1st, 2nd or 3rd person), as well as choosing words carefully, considering your situation’s formality and technical language, and your use of variety. The second section of the chapter deals with more style polishing techniques, such as varying sentence structure and using effective transitions.

I appreciate the advice on writing concisely because it is tempting to add extra words to meet length requirements. As a matter of fact, I have found myself doing this very thing in the event of dire circumstances. Take that last sentence for example. I could have written it simpler by saying “In fact, I have done this before.” Writing concisely is important because it allows the reader to easily read and understand your paper. I also liked the part about varying sentence structure. It’s frustrating to read long works with the same sentence structure. I’m probably horrible at it myself from time to time, but it’s refreshing to see it explained clearly. Overall, the points in chapter sixteen are all very simple things we can do to give our papers more readability and credibility. Thanks again Bedford Researcher!

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter fifteen is about using your sources to accomplish your purposes, and how to effectively incorporate them into your project. The first part describes how to work the ideas of others into your paper to best present their arguments and support your own. This can be done by introducing your argument with a quote, express disagreements on your issue with quotes, provide evidence from someplace more credible and authoritative than yourself, define processes, set a mood, support examples, or qualify a point. The second part of chapter fifteen is about integrating your sources into your project. This includes using attributions and in-text citations. It's important to keep your ideas and the ideas of your sources separate. It also talks about using quotes, either partial, complete, or block lengths, and summarizing or paraphrasing, and how to weave in the attributions in each situation.
This chapter is very helpful to me, as it lays the grounds for using your sources effectively. This is important to know because it separates good writing techniques and plagiarism. I found the first part of the chapter that explains how we can use quotes and such to complement our ideas to be very helpful. In the second part, we are given a long list of common attribute words that we can use, such as 'according to,' 'affirmed,' and 'interpreted.' These are a great help because I feel like I have been using the same words over and over, and it's great to have some variety. Glad we read Chapter fifteen when we did, it answered some of the questions I wasn't even sure how to form into questions.

Research Proposal

Lydia Sedy

Prof. Sonia Apgar Begert

English 102

11 May 2015

Introduction

Many college students are known for procrastination, all nighter study sessions before exams, and similar activities that seriously affect sleep schedules. This project will look at how sleep affects the brain, particularly the role in complex processes such as memory or executive function thinking. Does losing just one hour of sleep have a significant impact on cognitive performance? Should students be concerned about the amount of sleep they are getting on a regular basis? Is weekend sleep debt a problem and should it be discouraged? What effective measures could be taken to solve the sleep problem? My purpose is to build an argument about the importance of regular sleep on everyday functioning, and that measures should be taken in school-age and college level students to maintain healthy sleep habits.

Review of Literature

Sources reviewed so far include “The Effects of Sleep Restriction and Extension on School-Age Children: What a Difference an Hour Makes” by Avi Sadeh, Ruet Gruber, and Amiran Raviv, published in the Child Developement journal in 2003. The authors specifically study the effects of moderate sleep restriction--an hour or less--to mimic what is common in everyday living. They found that extension of sleep led to improved memory function and improved performance on a complex reaction test. However, Yu Sun Bn, Nathaniel Marshall, and Nick Glozier analyzed cross sectional surveys in their project: “Sleeping at the Limits: The Changing Prevalence of Short and Long Sleep Durations in 10 Countries” and found that longer sleep durations have been linked to premature death, unemployment, and depression. The same study reported that America has not been getting any less sleep since 1985, contrary to what other studies propose. Amy Wolfson and Mary Carskadon reviewed studies over the past two decades and consistently found that participants still reported not getting enough sleep. In their project, “Sleep Schedules and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents” published in an earlier issue of Child Development in 1998, found that students who slept more at night and reported less daytime sleepiness had higher GPAs. Students with short-sleep were reported to be more depressed, sleepy during classes, and dealt with other sleep-related behavioral problems. Another study supports these claims and found that students who slept an adequate amount had higher GPAs than those who slept less. This was explored by William Kelly, Kathryn Kelly, and Robert Clanton in the article, “The Relationship Between Sleep Length and Grade-Point Average Among College Students” published in the College Student Journal in 2001. Scott Carrell, Teny Maghakian and James West found a correlation between school start times and academic success in their project “A’s from Zzzz’s? The Causal Effect of School Start Time on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents” published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy in 2011. The authors studied students attending United States Air Force Academy to take advantage of the more controlled environment, and found that students who were assigned early morning classes had worse grades in those classes and in their classes later the same day, suggesting the importance of sleep schedules and circadian rhythms on academic performance. Mickey Trockel et al. studied a variety of health variables on GPA in the article, “Health-related Variables and Academic Performance Among First-Year College Students: Implications for Sleep and Other Behaviors” published in the Journal of American College Health in 2000, and found that sleep habits had the most significant effect (of the variables that were tested) on receiving higher GPAs.

One explanation of sleep’s effect on GPA might be explained by Pierre Marquet’s 2001 article, “The Role of Sleep in Learning and Memory” published in Science. He found that sleep allows memories to be consolidated and may even enhance the synthesis of brain proteins, both valuable processes for memory and learning tasks. M Gradisar et al. conducted a study particularly gauged at working memory in their project “Adolescent Sleep and Working Memory Performance” published in Sleep and Biological Rhythms in 2008. The authors found a link between working memory performance and poor sleep, by conducting tests that required participants to remember a sequence and then answer a question by changing the order of the sequence in some way. This more complex form of memory was found to be more sensitive to sleep loss than simpler tasks done in other studies.

Sleep loss contributes to many other problems, as Shih-Yu Lee, PhD, et al, found in their study “Stress and Sleep Disturbances in Female College Students” published in the American Journal of Health Behavior in 2013. The authors specifically studied women and found that their reported stress levels were associated with the amount of sleep loss, and that poor sleep contributed to fatigue, depression, and other physical symptoms. Samantha Clickenbeard et al. focused specifically on children in the study “Sleep and Delinqunicy: Does the Amount of Sleep Matter?” seen in the Journal of Youth & Adolescents in 2011. The authors acknowledge that there are many factors in delinquency, but they did find that adolescents who got less than 7 hours of sleep were significantly more involved in property delinquency.

Plan to Collect Information

Most of the sources I have collected so far are from online databases such as Academic Search Premier and JSTOR. These databases have given me great results and I plan to find a few more articles as well. The National Sleep Foundation website is also a great resource for my project. They publish yearly polls and synthesize the raw data for readers to understand. I will need to read through them carefully to find the information specifically related to my project. The advantage of this website will provide another survey of our nation and give me more variety within my works cited. I also found a few books that could potentially be helpful, (such as Sleep Thieves by Stanley Coren) but they were not available from my library. The book is cheap buying a used version online, so if I can’t find it or something similar anywhere else, that will work fine. Further, I am hoping to find a good chart or graph to bring in an eye-catching visual to support my position.

Project Timeline

I still need more sources to support my thesis, so this coming week I will spend some more time working with online databases, and also reviewing some library materials. My annotated bibliography is due May 18, so that will be my next project. My literature review discussing twenty sources is due the following week, May 25. I plan to start working on annotating and reviewing each source as I collect it, so hopefully these assignments won’t feel so big when I get to them. My final draft of my outline, rationale, and abstract are due June 1. I will start drafting then, and the in progress draft is due June 8. The final paper is due June 14. (Each due date has been moved one day earlier than what is the actual date… I do this to motivate myself to begin things sooner).

Working Bibliography

Bin, Yu Sun, Nathaniel S. Marshall, and Nick Glozier. "Sleeping at the Limits: The Changing Prevalence of Short and Long Sleep Durations in 10 Countries." American Journal of Epidemiology 177.8 (2013): 826-33. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Apr 2015.

Carrell, Scott E., Teny Maghakian, and James E. West. “A's from Zzzz's? The Causal Effect of School Start Time on the Academic Achievement of Adolescents.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 3.3 (2011): 62-81. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.

Clickinbeard, Samantha, et al. "Sleep and Delinquency: Does the Amount of Sleep Matter?" Journal of Youth & Adolescence 40.7 (2011): 916-30. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

Gradisar, M., et al. "Adolescent Sleep and Working Memory Performance." Sleep and Biological Rhythms 6.3 (2008): 146-54. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Apr 2015.

Kelly, William E., Kathryn E. Kelly, and Robert C. Clanton. "The Relationship Between Sleep Length and Grade-Point Average Among College Students." College Student Journal 35.1 (2001): 84. Academic Search Premier. Web. 26 Apr 2015.

Lee, Shih-Yu, et al. “Stress and Sleep Disturbances in Female College Students.” American Journal of Health Behavior 37.6 (2013): 851-58. EBSCOHost. Web. 11 May 2015.

Maquet, Pierre. “The Role of Sleep in Learning and Memory.” Science, New Series 294.5544 (2001): 1048-52. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.

Sadeh, Avi, Reut Gruber, and Amiram Raviv. “The Effects of Sleep Restriction and Extension on School-Age Children: What a Difference an Hour Makes.” Child Development 74.2 (2003): 444-55. JSTOR. Web. 30 Apr 2015.

Trockel, Michey T., Michael D Barnes, and Dennis L. Egget. “Health-Related Variables and Academic Performance Among First-Year College Students: Implications for Sleep and Other Behaviors.” Journal of American College Health 49.3 (2000): 125-31. EBSCOHost. Web. 11 May 2015.

Wolfson, Amy R., and Mary A. Carskadon. “Sleep Schedules and Daytime Functioning in Adolescents.” Child Development 69.4 (1998): 875-87. JSTOR. Web. 11 May 2015.