Graduate Research Papers

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Open Access Graduate Research Paper

Abstract

Human behavior can be dramatically affected by sleep deprivation (Peretz, 1996). The author gained an extensive understanding of sleep deprivation through a literature review by discovering the answers to questions such as: Does the loss of sleep have an impact on an adolescent's performance and behavior in school? Is this a problem that our nation's educators and parents should be concerned about? If sleep deprivation is in fact a problem for adolescents, how widespread is it?

Information learned during this process was then incorporated into the fictional novel, Every Waking Moment in order to disseminate the data in an entertaining fashion. The novel was written for adolescents to bring attention to the negative impact of sleep deprivation.

Every Waking Moment tells the story of Grant Auden, a wealthy visionary who develops a medical procedure to eliminate the need for sleep. Auden's "Wake-Up Call" promises to give people more time in their day to work, to play or to do whatever they desire. With an additional eight hours of wakefulness each day, Auden hopes to change society as we know it. A young reporter named Emma Troy comes to Auden's clinic, ARISE, in hopes of interviewing the genius and learning how the procedure works. In the process, Emma discovers that when people do not sleep they also do not dream. This becomes the central issue of the novel, as the ARISE patients begin to act out their dreams in the waking world. They become "Day Dreamers" and Emma learns that dreams are vital and will not be subdued.

The novel illuminates the issues related to sleep deprivation. Every Waking Moment explores the meaning of sleep in a society that never rests. The book incorporates a significant amount of sleep research. The content of the novel was a result of a review of relevant literature. The results of the literature review indicated that parents should:

1.) Encourage consistent sleep of at least eight to nine hours per night (Park, 2000).

2.) Discourage activities that promote lack of sleep such as late night studying, lengthy part-time jobs, television and/or Internet in the late-night hours and consumption of caffeine in the afternoon or evening (Wahlstrom, 1999).

The study also indicated that teachers should:

1.) Be aware of the problem of sleep deprivation in adolescents (O'Connor, 1998).

2.) Structure classroom activities to accommodate the "peak time" of student alertness, which tends to be afternoon hours (Lawton, 1999).

Year of Submission

2002

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Department of Teaching

First Advisor

Donna H. Schumacher-Douglas

Comments

The creative work referenced in this graduate thesis, consisting of Appendix A: Every Waking Moment, currently is not being made available in electronic format through UNI ScholarWorks.

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this graduate research paper and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit an email request to scholarworks@uni.edu. Include your name and clearly identify the thesis by full title and author as shown on the work.

Date Original

6-2002

Object Description

1 PDF (vi, 25 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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