Effects of Napping on Detection of Study Efficiency

Yangbang Hu

【Abstract】This study studied the effect of napping time on study-efficacy by recording the time of participants learning foreign words after them taking naps for different time. The result showed the more time participants taking naps， the more study-efficacy they have. These findings suggested students should take naps in a scientific way and schools should rule the time for students to take naps scientifically.

【Key words】daytime napping； study efficiency； students

【作者簡介】Yangbang Hu， University of Victoria.

How to effectively study is an important problem for students. Why other students can learn more things when they spend same time as yours？ There is no doubt that people learning things in different way， but effective learning can help students save their time and organize their work. However， lots of previous research efforts have sought to promote the relation between sleep and efficacy（memory）， only few researches focus on the impact of nap duration on objective measures of study efficiency.

The primary goal of this study was to examined whether napping duration affect students study efficiency for university students. Due to the conclusion from previous experiment， we hypothesized that a daytime nap and student study efficiency are interrelated. And with longer napping time， the study efficiency of students will improve more.

1.Method

1.1 Participants

The male students in this study was 20 （Mage=22.30， SDage=1.689，） and female students in this study was 20 （Mage=21.95， SDage=2.481）， so a totally of 40 students （Mage=22.13， SDage=2.102， age range=18-26 years） were recruited with SONA system （The Psychology Research Participation System） on the University of Victoria. Participants were compensated $5 for their participation， and the study was approved by the University of Victoria Human Research Ethics Committee.

1.2 Materials

40 rooms with a single bed， an alarm clock and quiet environment were provided for students taking nap.

1.3 Procedure

The experiment was randomly sampled with restriction， each individual was randomly chosen from the populations in the University of Victoria with restriction of age range from 18-26 years， but every 10 participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions To begin with， 30 participants were required to take 20， 40 and 60 minutes naps respectively before taking the experiment， rest 10 participants in the control group were free to do anything they want on the computers on the lab. All participants were required to show up on the lab at the same time at 12：20 am for register， next.

2. Results

Number of each groups participants， Mean Scores and Standard Deviations of Time of learning foreign words as a Function of time of sleeping.According to Levenes test，the assumption of homogeneity of variance was met， F （3， 36） =22.254， P> .05.There was a reliable difference for mean time of learning new foreign words as a function of the 0 minutes， 20 minutes， 40 minutes or 60 minutes for taking naps.

However， the difference between 20 minutes napping and 40 minutes napping， however， was statistically different， p < .01， indicating that they were unequally effective in influencing change in study efficacy， which revealed the more time students taking naps， the more study-efficacy they have it was found that the taking 40 and 60 minutes naps produced higher study-efficacy than taking 20 minutes naps and control， but taking 20 minutes naps did not differ from control.

3. Discussion

According to the current study， napping is beneficial to study efficiently， however， there are not much researches aim at the relationship between nap and study-efficiency， hence， for the further researches， future studies have to concern how to control the possible influencing factors， such as how to measure napping time in a more accurate way， choose samples with less bias （e.g， asking participants napping habits by questionnaire）， and also choose wider populations rather than just focus on one demographics. Moreover， study-efficacy can include many aspects rather than just learning foreign words， more dimensions should be tested， such as processing speed， auditory memory， visual memory， mathematics composite and so on.

In conclusion， the findings of this study can be helpful and important， especially for those communities which may have to learn new things in the daily life and requires high study-efficient. For example， it can help students to study more efficiently by taking naps and help schools or teachers to decide the time of noon break for students to take naps.

References：

[1]Pugsley，L.Study effectively[J].Education for Primary Care，2009， 20（3）：195-197.

[2]Bihlmaier，I.，&Schlarb;， A.Self-efficacy and sleep problems[J].Somnologie，2016，20（4）：275-280.