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Effects of Daily Activities on Academic Performance of Applied Science University Students

Nawal H. Albahtiti, Rula Khazaei*, Tala H. Sasa, Eman Almuhur, Waed Alahmad

Basic Science, ASU (private), Amman-Jordan

Abstract: Sleeping is a herbal repetitive nation of relaxation for the thoughts and frame that's important to life. Sufficient sleep is extraordinarily crucial for one’s intellectual and bodily fitness. But sleep loss is a tremendous trouble in present day society Our major cause of this study is to evaluate the consequences of numerous each day sports in particular sleep styles and the frequency of day-time sleepiness on the educational overall performance of the scholars of Applied Science Private University (ASU). A questionnaire became administered to the scholars of ASU from the primary first year to the 5th yr. The Most Effective Factor On The GPA of ASU Student Is the Mental Factor. This have a look at became designed to inspire college students to searching for healthier sleep habits, through the use of instructional fulfillment as indicator. So we want to recognize the function of sleep and ought to take good enough sleep of 6-eight hours consistent with day for fitness and wellbeing.

Keywords: sleep, academic performance, ASU, GPA

Received July 06, 2020; Revised August 08, 2020; Accepted August 17, 2020

Citation: Nawal H. Albahtiti, Rula Khazaei, Tala H. Sasa, Eman Almuhur, Waed Alahmad, Effects of Daily Activities on Academic Performance of Applied Science University Students. Journal of Sociology and Anthropology, 4 (1). 8-22. January 2020. doi:10.12691/jsa-4-1-2

1. Introduction

The questionnaires were finished through 154 faculties the vicinity we make our examine in ASU (Private), that 79% of them replied with inside the modern-day and 93 % cooperate. extra than of students obtained decrease than 7 hours of sleep at night time with inside the direction of a popular college a length of seven days and almost they all spend a lot that that series of sleep hours at the night time in advance of an exam, approximately 81.7%. Nearly, 47% of ASU university felt sunlight hours’ sleepiness almost every day. Longer sleep length the night time earlier than an exam is stated to the higher lofty grades and semester grade mountaintop averages (GPAs). A majority of students had suboptimal periods of sleep, mentioned as fewer than 7 hours. A sufficient sleep at the night time earlier than an exam is definitely related to the student’s steep grades and the semester GPAs. sufficient sleep optimally affects mental functioning and in the end affects students’ performance in his examinations and in a roundabout manner grades he received. [1,2,3,4,5] The pattern of sleep in a 24-hours period immediately is correlated to the physical health, mood, and mental functioning. [6,7] Suboptimal sleep is a local problem, the vicinity extra than a 25% of the USA grownups attempt now no longer to obtaining the useful 7 hours of sleep each night. For growing humans’ facts of the extremely good consequences of top sufficient sleep and extending the proportion of grownups who accumulate sufficient portions of sleep to beautify health, wellness, productivity, excessive of life, and population safety. Cognitive performance is affected by inadequate sleep durations, mentioned as fewer than 7 hours an afternoon for adults. [1,8] inadequate sleep decreases general alertness and impairs attention, main to slowed cognitive processing. Lack of sufficient sleep except affects the cause of thoughts systems intellectual processes. basically specifically impacted creation is the prefrontal cortex, which executes higher thoughts functions collectively with language, running memory, logical reasoning, and creativity [1]. Yoo et al confirmed that an unmarried night time of shortened sleep length reasons bargain in memory encoding, which led to a great deal data retention. Three studies assessing the effect of sleep on academic performance focal factor mostly on younger human beings and undergraduate college students. Few studies personal explored sleep behavior of students got here upon that sleep court cases are stylish of clinical university and bad sleep behavior had been correlated with changes in instructional performance. [9,10] However, studies that deliver data more or less sleep behavior of pupil of college students maintain but to be achieved with United States. take a look at is needed to provide of students with tangible evidence they'll be capable of use to construct each unmarried day choices regarding their sleep as it relates to their academic success. Ours become an exploratory study of sleep styles and their corporation with academic performance at ASU. unique study dreams had been to name sleep styles ASU university and the frequency of daylight hours’ sleepiness all through the university a length of seven days and to assess the corporation among sleep length and academic performance of those college students.

2. Methods

An anonymous, voluntary, self-administered questionnaire turned into administered to ASU students. This private university that is positioned approximately 225 miles from the Amman. The take a look at pattern blanketed all present day first-year (P1), second-year (P2), and third-year (P3) pupil, fourth, and 5th year- students. The questionnaire composed of three sections: pupil traits sleep styles for the duration of a standard college week and the night time earlier than an exam, and frequency of sunlight hours’ sleepiness. Student traits pertained to pupil demographic variables and measures of instructional overall performance. Student demographics blanketed age, sex, race, present day expert year (P1, P2, or P3), and campus location. Academic overall performance turned into measured with the aid of using the self-suggested grade acquired for the duration of fall semester 2013 for one particular direction for every corresponding expert year and with the aid of using the self-suggested GPA for the autumn 2013 semester. Both have been measured as express facts with five reaction classes for the direction grade degree and four reaction classes for the GPA degree (Table 1). Questionnaire, a device that investigates sleep behavior and sleep issues in clinical students.10 The questionnaire isn't a established device, however turned into tailored from the established Basic Nordic Sleep Questionnaire.10 In our take a look at, ten questions have been tailored from the Sleep and Daytime Habits Questionnaire. Sleep styles for the duration of a standard college week of the autumn 2018 and spring 2019 semesters have been measured with the aid of using the subsequent participant-suggested factors: (1) time to visit mattress; (2) quantity of hours slept at night time; (three) time to awaken; and (four) prevalence of naps. Participants additionally suggested on sleep styles the night time earlier than an exam with barely distinct factors: (1) time to visit mattress; (2) quantity of hours slept at night time; (three) awaken time in advance than regular nights; and (four) visit mattress time later than regular nights. Lastly, frequency of sunlight hours’ sleepiness turned into measured with the aid of using self-suggested sleepiness while waking, in the course of the day, for the duration of take a look at time, and for the duration of elegance time. Data associated with sleep styles and frequency of sunlight hours’ sleepiness have been gathered as express facts, besides for the sleep period which turned into gathered as non-stop facts. This cross-sectional take a look at acquired approval with the aid of using the authors’ institutional evaluation board (IRB).

Table 1. Characteristic of sleep pattern of ASU-Students

Table 2. Students Distribution on Academic level, Ages, GPA, Bed time

A pilot test of the questionnaire was administered to a group of 16 P1-P3 students. Students’ responses and feedbacks were used to assess the clarity of questions, format, and length of the questionnaire. In addition, students were polled for their thoughts on peer willingness to complete the questionnaire. Feedbacks which were collected from the pilot group assessed and adjustments on question wording and response choices were incorporated into a revision of the questionnaire. The pilot study was conducted to ensure validity, however no further steps to validate the questionnaire were performed. Students who participated in the pilot test were not excluded from the main study, as participants in the pilot were anonymous, as were those in the main study. The questionnaire was self-administered in class during a 1-hour weekly professional seminar in February 2014. On the day of survey administration, the seminar topic was related to the importance of sleep on cognitive functions; however, students were not informed of the seminar topic or that a study would be conducted prior the seminar. At the beginning of the seminar, packets were distributed to all students in attendance. Each packet contained the questionnaire, an IRB approval letter, and an opaque envelope. The study’s benefits, potential risks, and participant rights were then explained. Students were given 15 minutes to complete the survey, and the number of attendance was taken to assess the response and cooperation rate. The results were returned in the opaque envelopes in order to maintain anonymity. All envelopes were collected immediately before the speaker began the seminar session. Exclusion criteria consisted of students who were repeating coursework for any reason and/or taking at least one prescription medication for a sleep disorder (e.g., insomnia or narcolepsy). The rationale for such exclusion was to eliminate confounders that could potentially impact academic success and/or sleep patterns. Data quality control strategies were also implemented to ensure data accuracy. Multiple, related questions, such as duration of sleep, time students went to bed and woke up, allowed researchers to validate data accuracy. Data was analyzed using SPSS for Mac, v21 (SPSS Inc., Cary, NC) and SAS 9.3 (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC). Using the 2011 Standard Definitions published by the American Association for Public Opinion Research as guidance, the overall response rate (the number of complete surveys divided by the number of complete surveys (eligible cases) plus the number of no surveys--those who refused to participate plus those who were not present at the seminar) and cooperation rate (the number of complete surveys divided by the number of complete surveys (eligible cases) plus the number of nonparticipating eligible students who were present in the seminar) were calculated. Descriptive statistics were used to describe participant characteristics, sleep patterns during a typical school week and the night before an examination, and frequency of daytime sleepiness. Chi-square tests were conducted to assess unadjusted associations between student demographics and academic performance (course grades and semester GPA), as well as unadjusted associations between frequency of daytime sleepiness and hours of sleep (6 hours or less vs 7 hours or more). Next, unadjusted associations between sleep duration and academic performance were assessed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). If a significant unadjusted association was found between a demographic variable and academic performance, analysis of covariance was used to assess the adjusted association between sleep duration and academic performance while controlling for the effect of the demographic variable(s) (covariates). An a priori alpha value was set at 0.05. From 447 participants among P1-P3 students, 385 attended the professional seminar at both the main and the satellite campuses on the day the survey was conducted. A total of 364 students returned completed questionnaires with minimal data missing. We found that 44 students of pharmacy met the above-exclusion criteria and were excluded from response and cooperation rates calculation and subsequent data analyses.

2.1. Sample Description

Typically, 154 ASU students were recruited to the study. We found that 60(39.0%) students aged between 19 and 21 years. GPA is distributed to the four categories. 43(27.9%) are in their first year. Nearly half (44.8%) of the sample sleep 4-6 hours and two third of them (66.2%) sleep after midnight.

Table 3. Socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample

Figure 1. Pie chart of GPA, age, sleeping hours and time and educational level of students

Figure 2. Bar chart of GPA, age,sleeping hours and time and educational level of students

2.2. Reliability of Analysis

The reliability coefficient (Cronbach's Alpha) of the study is 0.762, which is considered to be a good value reflecting a reliable measure of the study tool.

2.3. Levels of the Constructs

In this part responses of the respondents to the items of the construct are recorded. Mean and standard deviation for each item is calculated and is ranked in descending order according to the mean. Higher mean values indicate more frequency on that item.

2.3.1. Sleep patterns

From Table 4, item 21 " My sleep dates (time) change during the quarterly leave " is the most frequent habit in sleep patterns with mean 3.89(SD=1.249) and frequency of 'often'. Secondly, item 13 "My sleep dates change on weekends" with mean 3.66(SD=1.257) and frequency of 'often'. Oppositely, item 26 " I wake up without using the alarm clock" is the least frequent with mean 2.91 (SD=1.457) and frequency of 'sometimes'. The overall mean of sleep patterns is 3.44(SD=0.640) and 'often' practiced.

2.3.2. Sleeping Early

This construct consists of only item 14 " I go to sleep at a specific time". The mean for this item is 3.07(SD=1.363) with frequency of 'sometimes'.

2.3.3. Healthy Preparation for Sleeping

From Table 5, item 8 " I sleep in my own bed " is the most frequent in healthy preparation for sleep and is 'often' practiced with mean 4.15(SD=1.267). Item 30 " I sleep in a dark room " is practiced 'sometimes' with mean 3.93(SD=1.295). The least practice in this construct is "I go to hypnotics to help me sleep" which is 'rarely' done with mean 2.39(SD=1.505). The overall mean of healthy preparation for sleep is 3.23(SD=0.565) and is 'sometimes' done.

Table 4. Means, standard deviations and frequency of sleep patterns

Table 5. Means, standard deviations and frequency of healthy preparation for sleeping

Table 6. Means, standard deviations and frequency of mental preparation for sleep

2.3.4. Mental Preparation for Sleep

From Table 6, item 2 "I browse websites until late at night" is the most frequent in mental preparation for sleep and is practiced 'often' with mean 3.96(SD=1.206). The second frequent practice is "I occupy myself with any work I cannot sleep" with mean 3.62(SD=1.295) and is 'often' practiced. On the other hand, item 18 "Read before bedtime (book - newspaper - magazine)" is the least frequent practice with mean 2.82(SD=1.383) and is being 'sometimes' practiced. The overall mean for mental preparation is 3.35(SD=0.670) and is 'sometimes' done.

2.3.5. Spiritual Preparation for Sleep

From Table 7, the most frequent habit is "I sleep on my right nipple" which is 'often' done with mean 3.79(SD=1.235). In the second rank is item 25 " I call the old prayer when waking up from sleep" with mean 3.32 (SD=1.337). Item 1 "I do ablution before going to sleep" is last with mean 2.91(SD=1.392) and is "sometimes' done. The overall mean for spiritual preparation is 3.18(SD=0.854) and is being practiced 'sometimes'.

2.3.6. Study Behaviors

From Table 8, all items in this construct is of 'sometimes' occurrence. "Attend the lectures from the beginning of the semester" is the most frequent practice with mean 3.34 (SD=1.248). "I Write my duties and my research at night" is the second frequent practice with mean 3.28 (SD=1.342). The least frequent practice in study behaviors is "Write my duties and my research after dawn" with mean 2.75 (SD=1.437). The overall mean for study behaviors is 3.14(SD=0.768).

Table 7. Means, standard deviations and frequency of spiritual preparation for sleep

Table 8. Means, standard deviations and frequency of study behaviors

2.4. Summary

Table

From the above table, sleep patterns construct has the highest mean with 3.44 and 'often' practice. In the second rank is mental preparation for sleep with mean 3.35 and 'sometimes'. While, sleeping early is the least frequent with mean of only 3.07.

2.5. Measure of Association

1. Correlations between components

Table

From the above table, all Pearson's correlation coefficients are significant (except for the relation between sleep patterns and sleeping early). Significant values of the correlation coefficients ranges from weak positive 0.161 (between sleeping early and healthy preparation for sleep) to moderate positive 0.453 (between sleep patterns and healthy preparation for sleep).

2. Correlation between GPA and constructs of the study

Table

From the above table, Eta coefficient of correlation (used for scale variable with categorical variable) measures the strength of association for GPA and the constructs of the study separately. Values ranges from insignificant weak value of 0.115 (with sleeping early) to significant moderate value of 0.521 (with study behaviours).

2.6. ANOVA

Analysis of variance is conducted to test if there are significant differences in means of respondents sleeping practices that can be attributed to personal variables.

1. Age

Table 9. Means and standard deviations of age categories within each construct

Table 10. Results of ANOVA

From Table 10, there are no significant differences in the means of all sleeping practices (constructs) that can be attribute to age (p-value>α=0.05).

2. GPA

Table 11. Means and standard deviations of GPA categories within each construct

Table 12. Results of ANOVA

From Table 11 and Table 12:

Ÿ There are significant differences in the means (frequency of Practices) of study behaviors that can be attributed to GPA (F=3.951, p-value=0.010< α=0.05). To specify which category is different a post hoc test known as 'Scheffe' test was conducted.

It was concluded from Schaffer test that respondents with GPA of 76-83.9 points (means=3.49) have significantly higher means compared to respondents with 60-67.9 points and 68-75.9 points (mean=2.99, 2.96 respectively).

Ÿ There are no significant differences in the means of other constructs that can be attributed to GPA (p-value>α=0.05).

3. Education level

Table 13. Means and standard deviations of levels of education within each construct

Table 14. Results of ANOVA

From Table 14, there are no significant differences in the means of all sleeping practices (constructs) that can be attributed to the levels of education (p-value>α=0.05).

4. Sleeping hours

Table 15. Means and standard deviations of sleeping hour's categories within each construct

Table 16. Results of ANOVA

From Table 15 and Table 16:

Ÿ There are significant differences in the means (occurrences) of sleep patterns that can be attributed to sleeping hours (F=2.777, p-value=0.043<α=0.05). To specify which category is different a Scheffe test was conducted.

It was concluded from Schaffer test that respondents with less than 4 hours of sleep have lower mean (mean=3.10) compared to respondents with 4-6 hours (mean=3.57).

Ÿ There are no significant differences in the means of other constructs that can be attributed to sleeping hours (p-value>α=0.05).

5. Sleeping time

Table 17. Means and standard deviations of sleeping time categories within each construct

Table 18. Results of ANOVA

From Table 17 and Table 18:

Ÿ There are significant differences in the means (frequency of Practices) of sleep patterns that can be attributed to sleeping time (F=3.727, p-value=0.026<α=0.05). To specify which category is different a Scheffe test was conducted.

It is concluded from Schaffer test that students sleeping after midnight have higher mean (mean=3.53) compared to students sleeping near dawn (mean=3.20).

Ÿ There are significant differences in the frequency of Sleeping early that can be attributed to sleeping time (F=3.608, p-value=0.029<α=0.05). To specify which category is different a Scheffe test was conducted.

It is concluded from Schaffer test that students sleeping near dawn have lower mean (mean=2.44) compared to students sleeping after the evening prayer or after midnight (mean=3.37, 3.15 respectively).

Ÿ There are significant differences in the means (frequency of Practices) of Spiritual preparation that can be attributed to sleeping time (F=6.360, p-value=0.002<α=0.05). To specify which category is different a Scheffe test was conducted.

It is concluded from Schaffer test that students sleeping near dawn have less spiritual preparation (mean=2.64) compared to those sleeping after the evening prayer or after midnight (3.31, 3.28 respectively).

2.7. Chi square Tests and Coefficients of Association

Table 19. Chi-square tests with coefficient of association between GPA and other personal variables

From Table 19:

Ÿ GPA is not significantly associated with age (X²=21.501, p-value=0.122> α=0.05). Pearson coefficient of correlation has a significant weak value of 0.194.

Ÿ GPA is significantly associated with levels of education (X²=83.662, p-value=0.001< α=0.05). GPA is significantly correlated with levels of education with a moderate value (r=0.408).

Ÿ GPA is significantly associated with sleeping hours (X²=89.94, p-value=0.001< α=0.05). GPA is significantly correlated with sleeping hours with a moderate value (r=0.413) which is the highest value among personal variables.

(Note: GPA is negatively associated with sleeping hours. The best GPA is for students with 4-6 hours of sleep with 14 out of 37 (37.8%). Secondly, for students with less than 4 hours sleep (13 out of 37 which gives 35.1%). This might be due to the fact that they spend more time to study prior to exams, while students who sleeps more have no time for hard and enough study during exams time)

Ÿ GPA is not significantly associated with sleeping time (X²=8.67, p-value=0.193>α=0.05). GPA is not significantly correlated with sleeping time (r=0.115).

2.8. Characteristic of Sleep Pattern of ASU-Students

Table

Obtaining more than 7 hours of sleep per day for adults is essential for optimum health and well-being. [11] Inadequate sleep is a public health problem, and getting adequate sleep was deemed critical enough to be an objective by Healthy People 2020 to improve national health. The majority of student pharmacists in this study slept less than the recommended duration for adequate sleep. Specifically, student pharmacists had an average sleep duration of a little over 6 hours on a typical school night. They had even greater sleep deficits the night prior to an examination, with an average sleep duration of 5 hours. The consequences of sleep inadequacies among the majority of participants included excessive sleepiness almost every day, tiredness upon waking, and excessive sleepiness during study time and class time. Duration of sleep the night prior to an examination was associated with academic performance as measured by course grades and semester GPA. This finding is consistent with Medeiros et al’s research among medical students that found students who reported sleeping for longer durations obtained higher scores on examinations, as well as Veldi et al’s study that found sleep behaviors to be associated with academic progression. [9,10] Moreover, congruent findings of decreased sleep duration associated with poor examination performance were found in Gruber et al’s study on children’s performance on IQ measures and Perez-Lloret et al’s study on adolescents’ performance on mathematics and literature coursework. [12,13] The causal relationship between sleep duration (cause) and academic performance (outcome) cannot be established because of the nature of the cross-sectional study. One may argue that students who performed well in class slept longer the night prior to an examination because they were more prepared, hence did not feel they needed additional time to study. Even though this speculation is reasonable, we hypothesized that longer sleep duration would lead to better academic performance based on the scientific foundation related to the effect of sleep on cognitive performance. Sleep has an integral role in learning and memory consolidation. Sleep is necessary to form synapses between dendritic branches that allow for memory formation of learned information, thus enabling students to recall information more rapidly and for more prolonged time periods. [14,15] In addition, neurophysiologic and imaging studies show that sleep works to ensure adequate function of the prefrontal cortex, which executes higher brain functions including language, working memory, logical reasoning, and creativity. [1,2,15] Belenky et al’s experimental study examining differences in cognitive function following sleep restriction of 3, 7, 5, or 9 hours a night showed decline in speed and accuracy of information proportional to amount of sleep restriction. [2] Thus our findings are consistent with established scientific foundation and would suggest the extra hour of sleep provides an advantage for higher academic performance on examinations among student pharmacists. Sleep deficits among student pharmacists warrant attention from faculty members and school administrators. In addition to daytime fatigue and poor academic performance, previous research showed that sleep deficits led to sleep-related complications including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and decreased cognitive function and well-being. [16,17,18] Student pharmacists should be educated on the importance of obtaining adequate sleep prior to an examination—especially that even one hour of additional sleep could be beneficial to their course grade and overall GPA than an extra hour of studying. Providing such information to student pharmacists would increase student awareness of the advantages of additional sleep and give them the opportunity to make informed decisions regarding their academic performance and their health. This information could be provided during first-year student pharmacist orientation and could include findings of this study and tips for establishing healthy sleep hygiene, such as refraining from eating large meals near bed time and avoiding reading or watching TV in bed. [19] In addition, increased awareness of beneficial sleep behaviors could lead students to establish sleep habits that extend into their professional pharmacy careers. This study has several limitations. First, there may have been differences in sleep behaviors, subjective sleepiness, and grades received among questionnaire respondents, students who refused to participate, and students absent from the seminar. There was a potential for recall error as we asked participants to recall sleep behaviors and grades received over the period of 6 months. Furthermore, while piloted among a small sample of the study population, the questionnaire was not validated, thus limiting the applicability of its results. In addition, this study was only conducted at a single institution, which makes it difficult to generalize results to student pharmacists at other institutions. Causality between sleep duration and academic performance could not be established because of the cross-sectional design of this study. Another limitation is lack of thorough analysis of daytime naps; so, it is unknown if students with shorter night-time sleep durations were compensating with daytime naps, which could potentially provide benefits to cognitive function. [20] Lastly, several confounders were not accounted for that could have affected academic performance. For example, sleep quality was not captured in this study. Sleep quality, in addition to sleep quantity, is impactful on academic performance. [21] Other confounders that could impact cognitive function and academic success include students’ intellectual ability, achievement motivation, personality, emotional health, presence of stressors, learning style, studying skills, time management strategies, diet, exercise, and caffeine use. [4,5,22] Future research could enhance generalizability and provide further understanding of the effect of student pharmacists’ sleep duration and patterns. For example, a similar study could be conducted at other schools in different regions or with different enrolment sizes. An experimental study that investigates the effect of sleep on academic performance would be ideal (e.g. including the use of polysomnography in order to provide a more objective measure of sleep quality), however such a study could not easily be conducted. An observational study with rigorous methods could also be considered. For example, to remove recall bias, students’ sleep hours could be recorded using diaries, and students’ grades could be obtained with permission from student records.

3. Recommendations

We recommend creating awareness programs about the importance of practicing daily activities in moderation, in the right way, and raising religious awareness, which reflects positively on educational attainment and psychological stability of students.

4. Conclusion

We Conclude That the Most Effective Factor On The GPA of ASU Student Is the Mental Factor.

Acknowledgements

The Authors Acknowledge Applied Science Private University in Jordan for the Fully Finance Support Granted of this Research Article. Sincere Thanks to all Colleagues in the Department of Basic Science and Humanities for their Encouragement and Support.

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