Analyzing How Sleep Duration and Sleeping Quality Affect the Health of Lingnan University Students

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In terms of sleeping quality, it was said by most of the respondents that they are not having a very deep sleep during the night. Most of them rated their depth of sleep as rank 3, where 5 indicates the deepest. Some respondents would also rank below 3. It represents that students are not having a good quality sleep. The strongest reason causing this would be the noisy sleeping environment (40%). As most Lingnan students re living in hostels, they may easily be disturbed by the hall mates during the night. To solve the problem, hostel associations could consider not to organize too much events during late night to prevent making too much noises. Also, the warden office of each hostel could also enhance their monitor on the residences by setting rules and regulations.

As students are having insufficient sleep and poor sleeping quality, different health effects were resulted. It was indicated from the questionnaire survey that 32% of the respondents have experienced headache after suffering from insufficient sleep. Dizziness was also sometimes experienced by students who didn’t get enough of sleep. For respondents of not having a good qualitied sleep, they were found to suffered also from headache (38%) and feeling lack of motivation to work (26%). Without enough and qualitied sleep, students may not have sufficient energy to equipped themselves for the demanding work during the daytime.

To conclude, from survey findings, it shows respondents are having diverse sleeping habits. The duration and quality of sleep could largely affect a student’s health in terms of physically and mentally. To solve the problem, different strategies can be proposed by the school authority such as organizing ILP courses on time management and also by setting laws and regulations within hostels. These could be ways to better help students in Lingnan to pursue a healthy living environment.

Apparently, there are still limitations to this research study on how sleep duration and sleeping quality affect the health of Lingnan University students. As there is a total population of over 2000 students currently studying in Lingnan University, this survey could only covered 80 students among all, which is just around 4% of students. The sample size collected is relatively small and therefore it cannot be served as reflecting the whole picture of all Lingnan University students. Based on this reason, the indications of this research result may not be certain. Other than this, the survey were most conducted during the Mid-term tests periods, where sleeping habits of our respondents may vary from normal, this may also affect the objectivity of the sampling. Also, there could not be a definite explanation to “sufficient sleep” and “good quality of sleep”, therefore response could not be collected accurately.

Despite the above limitations, a basic overview of sleeping habits of Lingnan students is still able to be seen. Undoubtedly, it is essential that both sleeping duration and quality could lead to different health effects. Even though solutions were raised to the university authority to reduce the problem, the influences would still be limited. This is highly dependent on the students’ themselves. As a university student and an adult, it is crucial for us to be responsible to our own health.

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