Sleep and Brain Activity Research Proposal Essay

Sleep and Brain Activity Research Proposal
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Sleep and Brain Activity Research Proposal
Sleep is an essential process in all living organisms. Humans spend approximately one-third of their time sleeping. Getting quality sleep is important for survival, just as living organisms need food and water. “Research suggests that maintaining optimal neural performance and learning capabilities can be extremely difficult without proper sleep.” (Rasch & Born, 2013). Additionally, it is harder to concentrate when one is suffering from sleep deficiency. The brain functions that sleep regulates revolve around nerve cells communication (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2019). Recent studies established that sleep helps remove toxins in the brain that build up when a person is awake (Hamilton, 2013). Therefore, it is important to understand the relationship between sleep and brain activity to present solid findings of why people should sleep more.
Statement of the Problem
Researchers are constantly looking for ways to improve the learning process among the students. Many of the proposed techniques are focused on empowering the child's memory. Learning is a natural process as it entails our body’s inherent ability to interact with and adapt to the environment through sensory mechanisms (Armstrong, 2010). These sensory mechanisms are all regulated through the nervous system, where the nerve cells pass information from the environment to he brain on the needed adjustments. It is, therefore, important to assess whether there a natural way of improving the response of these nerve cells to the environmental changes to result in better learning. Answering this question requires an assessment of the impact of sleep on brain activity. Sleep is an essential process for brain function and cognition. It is, therefore, important to assess how sleep affects brain activity. Understanding this relationship will help provide appropriate recommendations supported with evidence on why people should be encouraged to have enough sleep.
Objectives
* To understand the relationship between sleep and learning process
* To recommend the minimum amount of time needed to sleep for proper learning.
Research Question
1 How does sleep boost an individual's memory?
Hypothesis
* HO (Null Hypothesis): There is no correlation between sleep and memory improvement among learners.
* H1: Sleep helps learners retain information better
* H2: Sleep makes learners have sharper minds and hence able to handle tasks faster
Literature Review
Several studies claim that sleep is significantly connected to the memory processes. According to Rasch and Born (2013), extensive research has confirmed that sleep facilitates memory retention for over a century. The authors introduce the concept of slow-wave sleep essential for memory consolidation and facilitate the underlying electrophysiological, neurochemical, and genetic mechanisms. Peng et al. (2020) conducted a study to assess the effect of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on working memory via the event-related potential (ERP). A total of sixteen college students performed working memory tasks as they rested. After 36 hours of total sleep deprivation, the EEG data were recorded as the participants completed the tasks. The results indicated that total sleep deprivation could interfere with the working memory capacity.
There are at least two types of memory problems: the working memory and the long term memory. The two often lead to learning difficulties. Working memory leads to learning difficulties because the individual may have a limited space in their working memory necessary to organize and integrate new skills or knowledge. According to MacCormack and Matheson (2018), impaired working memory may be one of the key reasons why students with learning difficulties struggle in school. Malekpour, Aghababaei, and Abedi (2013) assert that the working memory is essential in learning disabilities such as mathematics disability, reading disability, and written expressions disabilities. Fewell and Littlefair (2016) also affirm that working memory is important in literacy, language, and numeracy skills acquisition. A person’s working memory depends on their nervous processes because the brain is responsible for information transfer and processing.
Long-term memory is also an important aspect of human learning as it facilitates the achievement of a range of skills and behaviors necessary for survival. It entails one’s ability to store and recall information for later use. According to Fandakova and Bunge (2016), the various forms of long-term memory include habits and procedural skills such as bicycle riding, playing the piano, and rememberance for facts or events. The ability of a student to remember facts or events is important in the learning process as it allows them draw connections among the different learning concepts (Savage, 2021). Besides processing information, the brain is also responsible for st...