Data analysis, reflections, areas of improvement

Welcome to the tenth post for this project. This week, I have analyzed my 30 responses in the context of their light pollution index. While light pollution may not be a significant factor in the sleep quality of the subjects, this project does highlight how other factors of sleep quality such as artificial light exposure throughout the day, sleep efficiency, and sleep regularity comparatively play a more significant role in determining sleep quality. The subjects whose responses demonstrated higher sleep quality (sleep quality scores in this project fall on a numerical scale of -39 to 24 points) than others reported positive answers for questions regarding the factors listed above. 

I must also address how studies regarding how exposure to artificial light affects animals’ sleep qualities would be quite different from this study. This particular study involves distributing a sleep questionnaire to humans; while the questionnaire is fairly valid and has been directly influenced by thorough research regarding the several factors affecting human sleep quality and ways of assessing sleep quality, an analysis of an individual’s sleep quality in context of specific factors would be more accurate when directly observing the individual’s behavior along with the use of certain equipment such as the EEG, EOG, and EMG. 

The light pollution index of an environment differs from direct exposure to artificial light. An analysis of my responses confirms that sleep quality score has been correlated with answers to certain questions such as exposure to artificial light throughout the day and exposure to sunlight throughout the day, as opposed to light pollution index (radiation) of the general region of the subject’s place of residence. I have also noticed that the sleep quality scores are strongly correlated with other factors in the questionnaire that fall under sleep efficiency, sleep consistency, and general lifestyle (this includes light exposure throughout the day).

Aside from discussing my current stage of analyzing the data, I need to also address that there are two main areas of improvement in regards to the conduct of distributing the survey in this project, and those are the following: the sample size and sample variety. A sample of 30 subjects, while sufficient for conducting an analysis, could be increased in the future for stronger analyses. Additionally, in terms of sample variety, it would be more beneficial to have subjects that varied more in their light pollution indexes. I have been writing these areas of improvement to include them in the end of my scientific paper. 

As I continue to write about my observations in the data I have collected, I am also writing a piece to acknowledge the harms of light pollution on the general public and the environment. Although this project may determine that human sleep quality is not significantly affected by light pollution index, it is important to reiterate the harms of light pollution and the importance of implementing practices, such as light shielding, to limit light pollution in our society for both the benefit of nature and our general benefit. Thank you for reading this post.