Senior SeminarClaire Diesman

The Psychology of Sleep and Environmental Sounds

Research PaperDoes the type of environment

you surround yourself in have an effect on the type and quality of sleep that you experience each night?

Environment

Colors1. Red is perceived as a

negative or tense color that causes physical arousal. In an experiment it was found that people working with the color red were high energy and very excitable.

2. Blue being the opposite of red is found to be very positive, calming, and cool. In the same experiment people working with the color blue were found to have very relaxed and slightly sluggish.

Mattress1. When using a high quality

innerspring mattress the rates of cycling alternating patterns (CAP) which is when you are aroused from sleep were much higher.

2. The type of sleep is also affected by the firmness of the mattress. In an experiment four out of six subjects slept significantly better on a soft mattresses.

Foods

Warm Food1. Foods like warm milk make

people feel warm and satisfied with a full stomach, both factors make a person drowsy and content.

2. Babies feel a sense of security when they are being fed warm milk by their parents resulting in the infants usually falling asleep since they are warm and satisfied.

Cold Foods1. Some foods like turkey have

an amino acid called tryptophan which is linked to the feeling of needing to sleep after you have a bunch of foods containing tryptophan.

2. The tryptophan taken from foods is then converted into sleep inducing hormones like serotonin and melatonin.

Amount of Sleep

Stress Level1.Changes in heart rate due to

stress can affect sleep. If someone falls asleep agitated or tense they have a less comfortable sleep.

2.Anxiety and stress are important factors in sleep deterioration since lack of sleep leads to stressful behavior when you are awake and walking around.

Insomnia1.Insomnia is a sleeping disorder

which makes it hard to fall asleep and staying asleep throughout the night that occurs on a nightly basis.

2.Insomniacs reported feeling drowsy or tired in the morning, waking up in the middle of the night, hard time falling asleep, and a hard time staying going asleep when they woke up.

Disturbances

City Settings1.City settings are filled with a lot

of people and establishments that have varying work or school patterns that in turn mess with their sleep patterns.

2.With peoples varying schedules some are awake when others are trying to sleep. Their activities during that time make affect another person’s sleep if they are in close proximity like apartment buildings or dorm rooms.

Country Settings1.People in country settings are

farther away from their neighbors and therefore the activity of the house doesn’t have much effect on the sleep patterns of their neighbors.

2.The duties of taking care of the everything on the farm requires them to wake up early and makes it easy for them to go to sleep at the end of the day.

Medicine vs Natural Remedies

Prescription Drugs1. Some medicines are

prescribed for people with insomnia or with other sleeping troubles. Medicines used for things like depression may also be used to help the person sleep better or all the way through the night.

2. Other medicines may cause drowsiness if they are taken and it is warned that you shouldn’t work heavy machinery.

Natural Remedies1. Exercise is one way that people

use to wear their bodies and their minds down so that they can get a restful sleep for the night.

2. Others use herbs like incense or things like scented candles to calm themselves enough to fall asleep and relax them enough so that they can get the best quality sleep possible.

Senior ProjectFor my senior project I am going

to be taking a list of different variables that may effect sleep and change them to see which one(s) have the most drastic effect on sleep.

InternshipFor my internship I am planning

on going to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club in Martinez and demonstrate how the environment can change their life in a positive way.

Timeline

Internship start by 1/10/13

Research Paper Done by 2/11/13

Project Done by 4/5/13

Rough Draft for the research paper done by 12/20/12

Testing for project started by 2/20/12

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