DESIGNS A RESEARCH
USED IN DAILY LIFE
ELNORA G. PAMPLONA
Teacher
Research in daily life can
take various forms, from
solving practical problems to
making informed decisions.
Let's design a simple research
project
that
could
be
conducted in daily life:
Research Question:
Does drinking a cup of herbal tea before
bedtime have an effect on sleep quality?
Research Design

Step 1: Formulate a Hypothesis
Hypothesis: Drinking herbal tea before
bedtime improves sleep quality.

Step 2: Participants Recruit a group of
participants for your study. Ideally, you
want a diverse group of individuals who
have varying sleep habits and preferences
for herbal teas. Aim for a sample size of
around 30-50 participants.
 Step
3: Variables
Independent
Variable:
Consumption of herbal tea before
bedtime (two levels: "tea" and
"no tea").
Dependent Variable: Sleep
quality, measured using a selfreport sleep quality scale (e.g.,
the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality
Index) and sleep duration.
 Step
4: Experimental Setup:
Randomly assign participants to two groups: the
"tea" group and the "no tea" group.
 Instruct participants in the "tea" group to drink a
cup of herbal tea (of their choice) about 30
minutes before bedtime for a week.
 Instruct participants in the "no tea" group to
follow their usual bedtime routine without
drinking any tea.

 Step
5: Data Collection:
Each morning, have participants rate their sleep
quality on a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being
excellent sleep quality.
 Record the time participants went to bed and
woke up to calculate sleep duration.

 Step
6: Data Analysis:
Calculate the average sleep quality and sleep
duration for each group.
 Use statistical analysis (e.g., t-test) to compare
the sleep quality and duration between the "tea"
group and the "no tea" group.

 Step

7: Interpretation:
Analyze the results to determine if there is a
significant difference in sleep quality and duration
between the two groups. If the "tea" group
shows a statistically significant improvement in
sleep quality and/or duration compared to the
"no tea" group, you may conclude that drinking
herbal tea before bedtime could have a positive
effect on sleep.
 Step
8:
Conclusion
Application:

and
Based on the findings, you can draw
conclusions about the potential benefits of
drinking herbal tea before bedtime for
improving sleep quality. If the results are
positive, you might consider incorporating
this habit into your daily routine or
recommending it to others seeking better
sleep.

Summary:
Remember that while this research
design is simple, it's important to
acknowledge potential limitations such as
self-report bias and individual variability.
More rigorous and controlled research in a
controlled laboratory setting would provide
stronger evidence.