The effect of sleep duration on attention and alertness in students at the University of Malta

Abstract

A notable body of research is developing with regards to the effects of sleep duration on cognitive functioning; with a particular interest in how this effects students. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the association of sleep duration on attention and alertness in students at the University of Malta. The sample (N=30) consisted of two groups in which participants either chose a short sleep of a maximum six hours or a long sleep of minimum eight hours for 5 consecutive days. Throughout the 5-days, students' natural sleep patterns were recorded using a sleep diary and afterwards their response suppression errors and reaction times were measured using a Sustained Attention Response Task and a Psychomotor Vigilance Task. Statistical tests were used to analyse the correlation between the attentional variables and sleep duration as well as the difference between the reaction time scores of the two groups. The results showed there was no significant correlation within this sample between the variables and sleep duration and there was no significant difference between the two groups. This may be due to the sample size as well as the external and confounding variables that were encountered in this study.