Create Your Own Sleep Study
Adapted from activity from Cornell University: http://www.discoverfoodsys.cornell.edu/pdfs/S23.pdf
Learning Objectives:
Learn what is needed to create your own mini sleep research.
Learn specific definitions to develop a foundation for your sleep survey
Utilize your own sleep habits (see Sleep Log, Sleep O Meter and Prompts from last class) to formulate
questions for your survey.
Please look up the definitions and write down the definitions in your own words so you understand them
and can explain them to your peers.
1. What is research?
2. What is a study?
3. What is a Hypothesis?
4. What is a Quantitative study?
5. What is a survey?
6. How do you design a good survey? What does it need to entail?
7. How do you create a good survey question? What does it need to consist of?
As we discussed in last class we learned about our own sleep habits through the Sleep O Meter, other
prompts and the Sleep Log. Now I would like you all to conduct your own mini Sleep Study. To do this, we
will prepare our mini Sleep Study by understanding certain terms for the foundation of the research.
There are many types of studies, however, you will be doing a Quantitative study. This type of study
quantifies the problem by the way of generating numerical data. The data is usually transformed into
statistics. It quantifies attitudes, opinions and behaviors. It is used to develop facts and uncover patterns.
This type of survey is usually structured and takes place in a survey, face to face interviews, online
polls….
Today: Part 2 of creating your mini sleep research
Reflection Question: Look at your log (or think back to your previous nights of sleep), reflect on your
sleep habits. Do you notice a pattern? Is there something noticeable that could be affecting your quality of
sleep? If you slept incredibly well one night- what did you do? On nights that you got a lot of sleep did you
feel better the next day?
Warm Up Activity: Share with your partner your results for the terms above (1-7). Do you understand
your peer’s explanation of the terms? Would you like to add anything? Did anyone have a different
definition? If so, would you agree? AND if you like one of your peer’s explanations, write it down and add
it to your own.
Today you will need to choose a specific sleep topic/problem/question that you are going to do research
on. You will also develop your survey questions for the questionnaire (7-10).
Learning Targets:
Learn specific definitions to develop a foundation for your sleep survey
Utilize your own sleep habits (see Sleep Log, Sleep O Meter and Prompts from last class) to formulate
questions for your survey.
Develop a topic for your sleep survey
Identify a survey sample within the Sage community you would like to focus your survey on
Learn about and formulate well-designed questions for your sleep survey
Key Concepts:
Survey
Population
Sample
Representative
Subject
Questionnaire
Scaled Response

: Why conduct a survey in a specific community? The primary goal of a survey of a group of
people is to describe attitudes, opinions, or views on a particular subject. Data is gathered from
people in their natural settings using a questionnaire (one type of survey instrument) to obtain
written or verbal responses. Systematic collection of similar data from each respondent allows the
exploration of relationships among variables that are measured. For example, you might assess
the relationship of hours of sleep and the grade of the respondents (i.e. how do the hours of sleep
change with the grade level?). Surveys can take less time and be an inexpensive way to reach
larger numbers from a wider geographic area, although the information may not be as detailed or
rich as individual interviews.
A "mixed methods" approach of combining interview results with data gathered from a quantitative survey
using a questionnaire or structured interview guide can be an influential, powerful tool in community
decision-making, and in convincing community members and leaders about the value of a given topic. In
any community we can often identify issues of concern to a great number of citizens. With a survey, we
can gather interesting information on those issues.
Planning a Survey: There are many items to consider when planning a survey. The rule of thumb for
this activity is to keep it simple and focused. The first thing to decide is who you want to describe and
what you want to know about them regarding your topic. For example, maybe we want to know which
types of distractions are used most frequently before bed in 10th graders.
When a small group of people is selected in order to find out something about the entire population, this
smaller group is called a sample. The sample is usually selected randomly, so that it is more likely to be
representative of the population. There are many ways to survey a group of people who represent the
population of interest. Some, like a mail questionnaire, telephone surveys, online survey, email or hand
delivery. As soon as someone agrees to participate in a survey, he or she becomes a subject in the
study.
Get into pairs and discuss your survey topic with your pair
Is it simple and to the point?
Is it too broad or too narrow? Will you be able to create 7-10 questions regarding this topic for the survey?
Can you seek out the answers you need for your survey topic?
What are some suggestions your pair could give you to strengthen your topic?
Share our topics
Now let’s hear what everyone’s survey topics are and their hypothesis (i.e. most students at Sage get
less than 7 hours of sleep due to stress, electronics before bed and other distractions).
Let’s go around the room and share our topics and I will write them on the board.
Moving into creating the survey questions for the sleep study…

In general, a survey involves a questionnaire. This “research instrument” can be disseminated to
your sample (some of the people in your community) by mailing a paper copy to them (mail
survey method), calling them on the phone and asking the questions (telephone survey method),
stopping them on the street or at a grocery store (in-person questionnaire method), or sending it
to them on email (web-based survey method). Surveys often use “closed-ended” questions. The
options for answers are provided and the respondents choose the one answer that most closely
reflects how they feel. You can also find out how important something is or how strongly people
feel about issues by asking them to agree or disagree with statements that you write.
Developing the questions is a critical, but it also needs to be creative and is a crucial step in designing a
survey. It will help you make sure you get the answers and information you are looking for.
1. The first step is to look back to the main topic for your questionnaire. What is the most critical item that
you're interested in? Write this question first, so that it guides the questions that will follow. For example,
a main question for the survey might be “Do you think you have good sleep habits before bed?”
2. From this broad topic, brainstorm about what specific details are important to learn about.
Questionnaires can have different sections to address specific subtopics relating to the main question.
For this survey, try to keep your questions focused and simple.
3. Review the different types of questions that can be included in a questionnaire. Think of examples of
questions for each type and write these down.
4. After you have several questions written down, go through each, deciding on question type and
wording. Also decide on what order to put the questions in. Look over the Background information on
surveys and the example below to get a sense of how different orders of questions can make a
difference. In what order do you want your subtopics?
5. When you are satisfied with your set of brief, focused questions, give your survey an exciting title! This
can come quite easily from the overall topic or question of interest.
There are several different kinds of questions that can be used in a questionnaire. A questionnaire can
use all of these types or just a few.
1.
Open-ended questions, in which participants write their own response
2.
Yes/no responses
3.
Scaled responses (on a scale of 1 to 5, rate your willingness to change your sleep habits before
bed so you get more sleep, with 1= not at all willing, 3 = somewhat willing, 5 = very willing.)
4. Closed-ended responses that allow the participant to choose the response that best suits them,
giving them a line for the "other" response. ("I typically get at least : 4 or less hours of sleep a
night, 5-6 hours of sleep a night , 7-8 hours of sleep a night, over 9 hours of sleep a night, other")
The key to good questions is that there is no doubt on the part of the respondent what the question is
asking. A good way to make sure the questions are not misinterpreted is to pre-test the questionnaire
with a small number of people who are like those who will be participating in the survey. In
general, closed-ended responses will be easier to analyze and interpret than open-ended responses.
Here is a checklist to help guide the development of questions:
1. Is the question specific, or vague? You will want to be as specific as you can, so no one can
misinterpret of the question. For example, "What are some distractions that you participate in
before bed?" is less clear than, “Check each of the distractions that you use before you go to bed
a) TV; b) Internet; c) Texting, etc."
2.
Do the questions contain jargon or abbreviations? If so, clarify and describe if the phrase is likely
to be unfamiliar.
3. Is the terminology you are using familiar to everyone?
4.
Are the questions biased? For example, "Do you agree that the school should start later so we
can sleep in?" is loaded with bias. "Describe an option of how the school could contribute in you
could getting more sleep" is less biased.
5.
Are any questions too probing/ personal, demanding, or difficult to answer? Keep the questions
simple.
6. Are you trying to ask two questions in one space? Keep your questionnaire clear and concise by
having your respondents answer one question at a time.
7.
How is your language? Avoid double negatives.
8.
What level of expertise will someone need to understand the questionnaire? Do not assume that
participants have a breadth of knowledge about positive sleep habits.
9.
How far back are you asking your respondents to remember? Be sure that any questions related
to a time frame are appropriate. Questions related to last night or the past few nights will be
easier for your respondents than last week or over the month.