Conclusions, questions, and the presentation

Welcome to the final post for this project. This post will focus on some conclusions I have reached this week and my current status of creating a presentation that briefly yet effectively conveys this project’s purpose, findings, and message to the general public. 

According to an analysis of the data regarding my respondents’ performance in each of the categories in the survey, sleep efficiency and general lifestyle (without context of artificial light exposure) had a much stronger correlation to overall sleep quality score than did exposure to artificial light. Exposure to artificial light is separate from light pollution (measured in radiance). Analysis of the relationship between light pollution and sleep quality scores showed a strong lack of a relationship. Most of my subjects come from regions within the range of 10.60 nWatts per cm-2 per sr-1 and 21.00 nWatts per cm-2 per sr-1. Very few respondents came from regions with radiance exceeding 36 nWatts per cm-2 per sr-1. 

My data analysis left me wondering if I had reached more subjects whose regions had radiance exceeding 36 nWatts per cm-2 per sr-1, would my data have looked differently? Would there have been some correlation, or would there still be a lack of correlation? I believe there needs to be a continuation of research done with more subjects on both the higher and lower ends of the light pollution scale. The other question I have is— why is exposure to artificial light shown to have such a weak correlation with sleep quality scores relative to the other factors? Although countless studies show how artificial light exposure negatively affects our sleep quality, and although the artificial sleep category has been universally scored with the lowest points than all the other categories in the questionnaire, the category does not demonstrate a trend consistent with the sleep quality scores. This leads me to believe that I may have made a few missteps in the development of my sleep quality scale, although there are still trends my data analysis has shown that are fairly consistent with what current research has to say about the factors that affect sleep quality, such as sleep efficiency and general lifestyle (without context of artificial light exposure) . 

As for the presentation, I have found some difficulty in maintaining conciseness, as there is so much context I feel is necessary, such as the stages of sleep, understanding circadian rhythms, how the VIIRS is used to measure light pollution, etc. However, I am working to find the most crucial elements of each topic to swiftly move past the context so that I can focus on my data analysis and the conclusions. One part of my conclusions includes the reflections and implications of the analysis of how different factors have been shown to correlate with sleep quality scores. However, my conclusions also include the challenges faced/areas of improvement and my call to action to the audience in regards to bettering our sleep quality and what we can do to reduce light pollution, and I especially look forward to sharing this part of the presentation with you all. 

It has been a fun 11 weeks of keeping you all updated on this project. There is so much I have learned throughout the past 3 months about light pollution, sleep, and more. Thank you all for reading this post, and thank you for reading my previous posts if you have been following the progress of this project.