Angus+M

=The Effects of Sleep on Memory=

This project tests how different people's memories are affected by varied amounts of sleep. toc

Goals
This project was inspired by the ongoing arguments about what the starting times in schools should be. This has been up for debate because of the fact that many high school and college students are not getting nearly enough sleep as they should be. It is a rarity that a student will get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep on a school night, which has led to some schools delaying their starting time so their students will be able to get higher amounts of sleep (1). The hypothesis of this project was that people would remember things better after having more sleep than after having less sleep. To do this, 4 subjects received varied amounts of sleep for 5 nights. On each night, they would read a passage that they had no prior knowledge of. The next day, they would be tested on that passage, and then the passages would be compared to see if there was a correlation between test scores and amounts of sleep. The exercise and fat/cholesterol intake of each subject was recorded each night, because it has been proven that these factors can affect memory. Including these factors is important, because the data could show a link between better test grades, exercise, and diet.

**Discoveries**
**The data produced from this project showed many interesting correlations between hours slept and test grades, there were also many nuances to the data as well. On average, the tests where the subjects performed best were hours 10 and 11, and the tests where the subjects performed the worst were hours 5 and 6. The average test score for 11 hours was 81.5%, the average test score for 10 hours was 83%. The average test score for 5 hours was 53%, and the average test score for 6 hours was 48.75% With this data, I learned that sleep does have an affect on memory. I was most surprised by the results. Although the hypothesis was that the subjects would remember more after more sleep, I became skeptical during the testing. However, the results showed to support my original hypothesis.**  **The hypothesis of this experiment was proved. On average, the two tests where the subjects performed the best were after 10 and 11 hours of sleep. The two tests where the subjects performed the worst were after 5 and 6 hours of sleep. Also, it is proved to an even further degree because the subjects even performed significantly better on their tests after having slept above the recommended amount than after having the recommended amount. They received significantly worse grades when they got below the recommended amount of sleep than after they got the recommended amount of sleep. This shows that recommended amount of sleep is still the right amount of sleep, but it is even possible to remember more after receiving more than the recommended amount.**  **By completing this project, I learned just how quintessential sleep is to health, not only physically, but mentally as well. I also learned how to set up a long-term experiment in order to discover a single question. The most educational component of this experience was keeping up to task with the project. A project with so many requirements needs to be worked on over a long period of time, and it takes a great deal of time and energy to produce good results.**

**Challenges**
**The biggest challenge I encountered during my project was getting rid of variables other than sleep that affected memory. Diet and exercise also affect memory, and I needed to show a correlation between sleep and memory, not diet and memory. I solved this problem by recording the amount of exercise and the recommended intake of fat and cholesterol for each subject. This way, I would be able to factor diet and exercise into the equation instead of leaving them unattended for. Another challenge I faced was fitting all of the days of sleep in. While it is easy to fit 6 hours of sleep into a day, it is hard to fit 11. To solve this challenge, I was flexible in my testing, and allowed the subjects to customize their sleep schedules in order to fit every day in.**

Looking back
If I were doing this project again, I would try to find a way to test more subjects, and make more days of sleep over an extended period. T here were only 5 days of testing, it is hard to show results from the diet and exercise, both of which did not prove to affect any subjects. For example, the subject with the highest average grade received the least average amount of exercise, and on average consumed the largest percentages of fat and cholesterol. A longer study with more subjects could show a stronger, more long-term correlation between exercise, diet and memory. In that longer study, it could be more likely that the subject with the least exercise and the highest consumption of fat and cholesterol would have an adversely affected memory. To do this, I would have started off my testing earlier, and plan a way to get more subjects, even if that required changing the overall project design. This is because it was hard for me to control a lot of subjects. For example, the problem with my project was that if I tested people who didn't live with me, there would be many factors out of my control.

**Project Resources**
**One of the passages for testing**