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IBDP Internal Assessment

SL Mathematics Applications & Analysis

How does sleep time affect school performances?

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Table of Contents
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Introduction:
This topic was chosen because of the sleepless nights many students such as myself have
faced for the sole purpose of studying for an exam to guarantee good grades. However, My peers
ended up performing poorly. The correlation I will be working with is finding whether or not
sleep does affect the grades a student can get on their exams. This will be followed with a null
hypothesis test that will help find the minimum hours of sleep required to get a minimum grade
of B (80%-89%). What is expected to occur is that most students who lack sleep the night before
an exam perform worse than the students who get the recommended amount of 7-9 hours of
sleep before an exam. This may occur because sleep-deprived students have been proven to
forget previous information as well as have trouble remembering any new information, due to
the lack of sleep and mental clarity (​Morrison​ 2019). This is why I will be writing this IA to help
figure out if the poor grades are due to lack of sleep.
This will be conducted through a survey that will be sent out to grades nine to twelve.
The sampling strategy used is random as the results were taken randomly from students in all of
high school. The survey will include a list of questions containing their average test scores and
how much sleep the students received the night before the test, the survey will also ask how
much preparation was done for the exam. Considering, a lack of preparation can be a factor that
leads to poor grades. Meaning, that the survey results can be due to lack of preparation as
opposed to lack of sleep. Where the two variables are hours of sleep and test scores in
percentages. The survey will be specifically asking about math as opposed to other classes. This
is because it will get too confusing for students to find their average if the survey is asking for all
classes, and will lead to the survey being likely inaccurate. For the survey to be as accurate as
possible the hours of sleep they received the night before they performed their best on a test will
also be asked.

Null Hypothesis: ​Sleeping 6 hours or more the night before an exam can not guarantee an
average score of B in a maths exam.

Based on personal experience, as I received an average score of a B getting 6 or more hours of

sleep. As I noticed that whenever I had enough time to sleep before a math test (6 or more
hours), I would get an average score of B, whereas I can get less than this whenever I received
less hours of sleep.

Alternative Hypothesis:​ Sleeping 6 or more hours the night before an exam can guarantee an
average score of B in a maths exam.

Data Analysis (Survey results using google form):

The following pie charts are taken from results seen on google form sent to Dubai American
Academy students.
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Figure 1: hours of sleep gotten before a math test

Table 1: Number of hours of sleep

Hours Sleeping Number of people who answered the survey

2-4 1

5-7 31

8-10 14

11-13 0
Mean (using graphic display calculator t-inspire) : 6.85- link to calculator screen dump
Standard Deviation (using graphic display calculator t-inspire): 1.49

Figure 2: Average math grade

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Table 2: Average Grade in Math

Average grade in Math Number of people who answered survey

A (90-100) 17

B (80-89) 23

C (70-79) 5

D (60-69) 0

F (0-59) 1

Mean (using graphic display calculator t-inspire) : 86.1 ​show calculation

Standard Deviation (using graphic display calculator t-inspire): 10.7

By looking at the mean of the two tables one can assume that with an average study time of 6
hours, a student can get a B (86.1%).

Table 3: 2-4 hours

3 B
Mean of the number of hours of sleep: 3
Mean of Average grade: 84.5% - show from screen dump

Table 4: 5-7 hours

6 A

7 B

5 B

7 B

5 A

6 A

6 F

5 A

7 A

7 B
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7 B

5 B

5 A

6 C

6 C

6 A

5 A

7 C

5 A

5 C

6 A

7 A

6 B

6 B

5 B

6 A

7 B

6 C

7 B

6 B

6 B

Mean of the number of hours of sleep: 6

Mean of the Average grade: 85.2 - screen dump
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Table 5: 8-10 Hours

10 A

10 B

10 A

8 B

9 B

9 B

9 B

9 B

8 A

10 B

8 A

10 B

9 A

9 B
Mean: 9

Table 6: Mean of the average grade vs mean of hours of sleep; 88.3- screen dump
Mean of hours of sleep Mean of average grade:

3 84.5%

6 85.2%

9 88.3%
Correlation Coefficient= 0.939 - screen dump

Since the correlation coefficient is near one, it shows a strong positive correlation between the
two variables hours of sleep and average grade. From this information, one can see there is a
relation and proceed with the null hypothesis test.
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Alternative hypothesis:
If a student receives 6 hours or more of sleep the night before an exam he/she will receive a mark
of B (80%-90%)

Null hypothesis:
If a student receives less than 6 hours of sleep he/she will receive a mark of B(80%-90%).

Testing the null hypothesis

- The significance or alpha level is chosen at 0.05 (5%).
- Calculating the P-value:
Mean (μ ) (found from table 1)= 6.85
Standard deviation (σ ) (found from Table 1)= 1.49
x-value= 6
z-value= x−μ
σ
= 6−6.85
1.49
=-0.570
p-value= 0.284

After seeing that the p-value is above the desired alpha value, we can say that I failed to reject
the null hypothesis. Based on my experiment I could not support the alternative hypothesis
which states If a student receives 6 hours or more of sleep the night before an exam he/she will
receive a mark of B (80%-90%) in math.

Conclusion
After conducting a survey and getting the results. I found the standard deviation and
mean for all the hours. This answers many questions, helping understand what to do to receive a
higher grade, sleeping more than 6 hours of sleep will not guarantee an average grade of a B.
Figuring out a hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis. This stated if a student gets 6 hours or
less then the student will get a B. The alternative hypothesis stated that if a student gets more
than 6 hours of sleep then that student will still be capable of achieving a B. After figuring this
our I began my data finding the correlation coefficient helped me figure out that there is a strong
positive correlation. Allowing me to proceed with the null hypothesis and testing my null
hypothesis allowing me to understand that the p-value is higher than the desired alpha value
meaning the null hypothesis is accepted and the alternative hypothesis is rejected. This may be
accurate to a certain extent considering throughout my research and data I did not include how
many hours of studying each student put into the math test. If a student received over 6 hours of
sleep however studied for 0 hours then that student received their grade due to their lack of
studying, and the amount of sleep they got does not have a large impact on their score. If one
were to continue this research including the study time in the data will allow for a much more
accurate representation of the correlation between sleep time and grade on a test.
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Appendix

Rearranging data for further study:

A:95% (this is because the mid class from 90-100 is 95)
B: 84.5%(this is because the mid class from 80-89 is 84.5)
C:74.5%(this is because the mid class from 70-79 is 74.5)
D: 64.5%(this is because the mid class from 60-69 is 64.5)
F:29.5%(this is because the mid class from 0-59 is 29.5)
Number of hours of sleep Number of hours spent Grade
studying

5-7 3 A

8-10 10 A

5-7 3 B

5-7 5 B

5-7 7 B

5-7 4 A

5-7 0.5 A

8-10 5 B

5-7 0 F

8-10 4 A

5-7 3.5 A

5-7 3 A

5-7 2 B

5-7 3 B

5-7 9 B

5-7 12 A

5-7 3 C

5-7 3 C

5-7 7 A
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8-10 2 B

8-10 2 B

5-7 1 A

5-7 4 C

3 10 B

5-7 7 A

8-10 2 B

5-7 3 C

8-10 2 B

5-7 8 A

8-10 1 B

8-10 2 A

5-7 2 A

5-7 1 B

8-10 2 B

5-7 5 B

5-7 1.5 B

8-10 2 A

5-7 3 A

5-7 2 B

8-10 3 B

8-10 1 A

5-7 1 C

5-7 3 B

5-7 5 B
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8-10 1 B

5-7 1 B

Bibliography:

Morrison, Nick. “More Sleep Means Better Grades For Students.” ​Forbes,​ Forbes Magazine, 11 Feb.
2019,
www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2019/02/11/more-sleep-means-better-grades-for-students/?s
h=2419ad375015.