EarlyBirds+VS.+NightOwls

Title: Early Birds VS. Night Owls By: Lily Maxwell

Abstract: The project I am doing is to see what sleep times are the most productive and healthy to highschool girls. I am going to test night owls (girls who went to bed and woke up late) and early birds (girls who went to bed and woke up late). In my exoeriment I hope to prove that the early birds are smarter than the night owls.

Purpose: I am testing if early birds are smarter than night owls. The saying goes: Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. ** (Benjamin, 2012) ** But is that the same for going to bed and waking up late? I will find out by testing 4 girls, 2 early birds and 2 night owls. They will go to bed and wake up at different times, but will sleep the same amount of hours. Then they will take a small quiz at the same time of the day. The testers will do a 15 questin quiz they have already done before. None of the testers will have coffee, energy drinks, or stimulants to help them get up and get ready. Coffee and other food/drinks that contain caffeine help you stay awake. ** (Covington, 2012) ** If the girls ingest any caffeine it would mess with the results, because it would effect their tired feelings. When you wake up, you feel slow and groggy, which can affect your mood, which in turn can affect your day. ** (Whodaman, 2012) ** Early risers, by the time they get to school, have already been awake for hours, and the groggy or sleepy attitude has worn away. As for night owls, they have just woken up and haven't adjusted to the morning yet. They also could have possibly been rushed and are still tired at when they arrive at school. Waking up early has led to thinking more clearly. ** (The Good, 2012) ** Thinking clearly goes hand and hand with smarter thoughts, which could possibly make you more intelligent in the long run. Most people, up until 100 years ago went to bed just after the sun went down, and woke up when the sun rose. **(Staying, 2012.)** We aren't really supposed to stay up at ridiculous times of night. It is also not in our nature because, everything else on this earth, except nocturnal animals wake up with the sun and go to bed with it as well. **(Staying, 2012)** Possibly that affects the grades in school we have, because plenty of students stay up late playing games, watching T.V., doing homework, or are involved in sports. Knowing all these things I hope to have a successful experiment and see if the early birds are smarter than night owls.

Hypothesis: If you go to bed early and wake up early, then you will be smarter then people who go to bed late and wake up late.

Materials: 4 girls (2 night owls, 2 early birds 4 quizzes

Procedure: 1- at the beginning/start of school give a quiz* to 2 night owls and 2 early risers 2- calculate the scores of the test they did today 3- compare how they did previously in graphs and charts 4- draw conclusions to see if your hypothesis is correct
 * this is a 15 question quiz that they have taken at the beginning of the year

Data Table:




 * testers || original quiz score || new quiz score ||  ||
 * night owl 1 || 12 || 9 ||  ||
 * night owl 2 || 11 || 10 ||  ||
 * early bird 1 || 12 || 13 ||  ||
 * early bird 2 || 13 || 15 ||  ||

Analysis: My experiment has all of it's data recorded. It was a successful experiment to my knowledge. All I see is that my hypothesis was correct, the early birds were smarter than the night owls. As you take notice in my graph and table the early birds scores increased. Early bird 1 original score was 12 and their new test score was 13, which is an increase of 1, it is a small increase but even though it is slight the score did grow. Early bird 2 original test score was 13 and the new test score was a perfect score of 15, that is a 2 point increase. Now moving onto the night owls. The night owls quiz scores went down. What I noticed while I graded them, was that the girls made many careless errors. You can especially see the score drop in night owl 1, whose score went from 12 to 9. That is a 3 point differnce. There original grade was a B, and their new grade would be a D. And night owl 2 had an original quiz score of 11 and a new score of 10. It is a 1 point decrease, but like I said previously about the early bird a decrease is a decrease, even if it is only seperated by 1 point. In the end all my data and information point towards a correct hypothesis.

Conclusion: After all my testing was over I came to the conclusion that being an early bird has its benefits. My original hypothesis was: If you go to bed early and wake up early, then you will be smarter then people who go to bed late and wake up late. It was correct, the early night owls scores decreased and the early birds scores were positive and increasing.

Limitations:

With any experiment there comes at least the slightest bit of error. In my experiment Early Birds VS. Night Owls, there were a few problems, but with any problem gives an option to learn from it. Without knowing I'm sure I had a few other mistakes, but here are 3 limitations and how to fix them if I would ever do this experiment again. The first limitation is that the testers may have cheated on their quiz or the original quiz they took. I could fix that problem by not testing them next to each other, or by making sure they finish the test in the hour it is given in. Another probvlem that come across in my project is how long it took someone to fall asleep, the girls could have, for example, went to bed at 9 but didn't fall asleep until 11. In that case the tester was in bed for 8 hours but didn't really sleep the full amount of time. To fix that problem you would have to add the hours it took to fall asleep onto to sleeping time so it would fit the time requirements correctly. Finally one last limitation was the grading could have been wrong or miss calculated. You could fix that by double checking the scoring process and taking your time. Last but not least, to further improve the experiment, I would create another hypothesis to identify what amount of sleep hours is the healthiest and most rewarding for females.My new hypothesis is: If you sleep 9 hours then you wil be stronger than people who sleep 11 hours a night.

Bibliography:
 * "Benjamin Franklin Quotes." // Benjamin Franklin Quotes // . N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. [].
 * Covington, Helen. "Can Caffeine Make You Stay Awake?" //LIVESTRONG.COM//. N.p., 8 Sept. 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.
 * //"The Good Habit and Benefits of Going to Bed and Waking Up Early."// The Good Habit and Benefits of Going to Bed and Waking Up Early//. N.p., 13 May 2012. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. [].//
 * "Staying Up Late: Why Everyone Should Go to Bed Earlier | The Daily Mind â Making the Daily Grind Meaningful." //The Daily Mind Making the Daily Grind Meaningful RSS//. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2012
 * Whodaman. "Smarter to Smartest." //: Increasing Productivity//. N.p., 31 Aug. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. [].