A Study of

Lack of Sleep Habits of Employees of a software firm

Introduction
To most service holders, sleep is a precious & rare thing to come by. Every day a private service
holder has to go through a huge amount of pressure which is unbearable. But, what we might not
know is that, how important sleep might be us, to make sure we can handle this pressure. We NSC
company want to conduct a survey on how the lack of sleep habits can effect performance. We are
efficient and confident to do this survey as we have done such surveys before. To conduct this survey
we have already prepared a set of Questionnaire and also selected two software companies where
around 50 people works.

Background
The relationship between poor sleep patterns and the daily activities are tremendous. A person cannot
function properly without a full nights sleep. If a person is not function-able then they cannot achieve
their daily goals. This means that there will be more problems for them to solve daily. A person with
poor sleeping patterns will have a dramatic negative impact on his/her daily work.

So how does it effect on you? It affects your performance in several different cases. For example,
memory loss, research shows that a person needs at least 6-8 hours of sleep every night. If they do not
sleep for that much time, then information cannot be absorbed by the brain of that person (Academic
Resource Center, 2011).

Project Objective
The Purpose of this study is to find the reasons of poor sleep habits. Less sleep & unpredictable
patterns of sleep is a common issue of a private job holder. We, ourselves, are sufferers of this disease.
So we have decided to do this study to find out if there is a solution. We have decided to take samples
from 2 software firms.

Hypothesis
H0 : Employees of software firm sleep at least 7 hours or more at night

H1 : Employees of software firm sleep less than 7 hours at night

Literature Review
In reviewing several journals, which has tried to find the relationship between poor sleep and
performance almost all the articles have agreed that there is an impact on the performance. To find the
relationship between lack of sleeping and performance we will also need to find the causes of their
lack of sleep. We have also looked at different measures of sleep scales, and found out that The
Groninger Sleep Quality Questionannie (Leppamaki, et al., 2003) was most appropriate to refer to
for this study. A cause of lack of sleep sometimes is because of irregular sleep pattern. In a study, on
effects of lack of sleep on people it showed that, peoples with irregular sleep pattern often suffers
from higher fatigue, deterioration of mood & performance in daily activities (Ansari et al., 2009). A
very few research work has been done on this subject matter, which is why; we have decided to study
further about this topic.

Methods & Methodology

Methods

The methods of this study will be based on data collection from 2 software firms. Our Sample is from
these two firms.

Materials: We need to conduct this study which is very simple. We need to photocopy 50 copies of
structured questionnaire, with which, we will be conducting the analysis. For literature review, we
will need to have access to the internet, to find electronic journals etc. related to this subject matter.

Statement of Budget

1. Transportation Cost CNG Ride (200tk*9days) 1800tk

2. Printout -survey- (50copies*5tk) 250tk

3. Internet usage (1500tk*1months) 1500tk

4. Food and extra expense (600tk*9days) 5400tk

Total 8950tk

Methodology
Respondents: There were 33 males and 17 female employees with a total of 50 employees
were taken as samples for this study. The age ranges from 25-55. The respondents were
selected with the help of convenient sampling method. They were given a structured
questionnaire with 3 different parts in it (Part A, Part B, and Part C). Part A indicates the
demographical aspects of the respondents. Part B indicates the amount of sleep, in terms of
numerical data. And Part C is the Sleep Study which has been modified from Groninger
Sleep Quality Questionnaire (Leppamaki, et al., 2003). (See Appendix for Questionnaire
sample)
Procedure: We distributed the survey among the employees. Upon given the survey the
participants completed the survey. Upon completion, then the surveys were collected from
them for data analysis.

Time Frame: We needed exactly 1.5 months to conduct this study. For the 3weeks collected
samples individually, from the employees. On 4th week and 5th Week we analyzed &
processed all the data with the help of SPSS Statistical Data Editor Version 23. On the 6th
week, we interpreted the data and found the results of my study.

Population

Theoretical: All employees from software firms.

Accessible: Employees from the two software firms

The Sample

A total of 50 people completed the questionnaire, with 25 females and 25males. All of them
are working in different positions in these software firms. We use Simple Random
Sampling (SRS) methods to pick up the samples.

Unit of analysis: Individual

Types of Research: Here we are carrying out Inductive research

Time reference: This is a cross-sectional study

FINDINGS
Sleeping problem according to sex:
Sleeping habit is different between individual to individual but mostly differ between male
and female. But as an employee both men and women are facing troubles with sleep. We
analysed the facing sleeping problem on the basis of sex (male and female). Following table
provides the analysed result.

sex * trouble falling asleep? Crosstabulation

trouble falling asleep?
yes no Total
sex female Count 17 8 25
% within sex 68.0% 32.0% 100.0%
% within trouble falling 45.9% 61.5% 50.0%
asleep?
% of Total 34.0% 16.0% 50.0%
male Count 20 5 25
% within sex 80.0% 20.0% 100.0%
% within trouble falling 54.1% 38.5% 50.0%
asleep?
% of Total 40.0% 10.0% 50.0%
Total Count 37 13 50
% within sex 74.0% 26.0% 100.0%
% within trouble falling 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%
asleep?
% of Total 74.0% 26.0% 100.0%

Here we can state the below points:

1. 68% of female employees are having problem with sleep.

2. 34% of total employees are female who facing sleeping problem.
3. 80% of male employees are having troubles with sleep.
4. 40% of total employees are male who agrees that they have lack of sleeping problem.
We can sum up with the statement most of the employees from software firm having troubles
with falling asleep.

Sleeping according to smoking habit:

This is found from the analysis that smoking habit is one of the reason of lack sleep at night.
Here we analyze the relation between number of cigarettes smokes per day and sleeping
hours. The below table provides the result.

Correlations
hours sleep/
cigs per day week nights
cigs per day Pearson Correlation 1 -.958**
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 8 8
hours sleep/ week nights Pearson Correlation -.958** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 8 49
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Here it is seen that there is strong negative relationship between number of cigarettes smoke
and sleep hours. So it is clear that if one increase smoking, he/she will start facing lack of
sleep problem.

Sleeping time based on stress:

Stress is also one of the reasons of sleeping problem. For evaluating the statement we find out
the correlation between stress levels and sleep hours.

Here we can see that there is a moderate negative correlation between the variables. That
means the more the employees get stressed, the less they can sleep.
 Correlations
how stressed hours sleep/
over last month? week nights
how stressed over last Pearson Correlation 1 -.489**
month? Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 50 49
hours sleep/ week nights Pearson Correlation -.489** 1
Sig. (2-tailed) .000
N 49 49
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Analysis:

After analyzing the collecting data and information we can come to the point that most of the
employees of Software firm are facing problem with the sleeping habit. The main reasons we
found out that stress and smoking.
In sum we want to make our statement strong that employees of software firm sleep less
than 7 hours with the one-sample t-test

One-Sample Test
Test Value = 7
95% Confidence Interval of
Sig. (2- Mean the Difference
t df tailed) Difference Lower Upper
hours sleep/ week nights -7.832 48 .000 -1.3061 -1.641 -.971

From the analysis we can ignore test value 7 (Idle sleeping hours) because 95% of confidence
interval doesnt include this value. We are taking the risk of less than 2.5%.

Conclusion:
Sleep plays a vital role in good health and well-being throughout your life. Getting enough
quality sleep at the right times can help protect your mental health, physical health, quality of
life, and safety. The way we feel while we're awake depends in part on what happens while
we're sleeping. During sleep, your body is working to support healthy brain function and
maintain your physical health. So, it is necessary to take a better sleep at night for a better
morning next day. In Bangladesh, software firm employees are passing stressful time because
of different issues like work pressure, indiscipline in work schedule, corporate environment.
So, in next future it will be a big issue in software firm. Employee should be more careful
about sleeping time and firms also focus more precisely in this matter and take proper
actions.

Reference
Edwards, J.P., 2008. Sleep habits & Academic Performance, Auburn University. Alabama, 5

Academic Resource Center, 2011.Sleep and Academics, Utah State University, Utah, USA.
www.usu.edu/arc

Talib, N., and Rehman, M.Zia., 2012. Academic performance & perceived stress among
university students. Academic Journal, 7(5), 127-132

Curio, G., 2006. Sleep loss, Learning capacity, & Academic performance. Sleep Medicine
review, 10, 323-337

Ansari, W., Raziq M.A., Iqbal, T., Iqbal, S.A., Tanveer, Z. H., 2009. Effect of Changed
Sleep Pattern on Academic Performance of Medical Students at QUAID-E-AZAM Medical
College, 2(3), 165-167

Leppamaki, S., Meesters, Y., Haukka, J., Loonquist, J., and Partonen, T., 2009. Effects of
simulated dawn on quality of sleep- a community based trail. BNC Psychiatry, 3,14.
Appendices

Questionnaires

1. Gender: Male Female Age:

2. Marital status: single married divorced widowed

3. Highest education level completed: primary school secondary school

i. Undergraduate degree postgraduate
degree
4. Weight: ______ (In KG) 5. Height:_______(In feet)

5. Do you smoke? Yes No: If yes, how many cigarettes do you smoke per day?

6. How many drinks containing caffeine (eg. coffee, tea or cola)do you drink per day?

7. Generally, how many hours sleep do you get:

a. On week nights: _hours On weekends: _hours
8. How many hours sleep do you think you need so that you dont feel sleepy the next day?

____hours
9. Do you have trouble falling asleep? Yes No
10. Are you aware of waking up during the night? Yes No
11. Do you work night shift or rotating shifts? Yes No
12. Would you describe yourself as a light sleeper(easily awaken) Yes No
13. Do you usually wake up feeling refreshed? On weekdays? Yes No
14. How satisfied are you with the amount of sleep you get?
i. Very dissatisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 very satisfied
15. Overall how would you rate the quality of your sleep?
i. very poor poor fair good very good excellent

16. Please rate how stressed you have felt over the last month:
not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 extremely stressed

17. Do you regularly take any medication to help you sleep? Yes No

18. Do you feel you have a problem of any sort with your sleep?
No (Please skip to the next section)

Yes (Please answer the questions below:)

To what extent do you feel that the following aspects of your life are affected by
your problem with sleep? (please circle a number on each line below)

mood not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent

Energy level not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent
concentration not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent
memory not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent
Life satisfaction not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent
Overall well-being not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent
relationships not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent

19. Are you a restless sleeper? Yes No

20. Please rate how tired youve felt over the past month:
not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent

21. Please rate how sleepy youve felt over the past month:
not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 to a great extent
 Codebook for sleep.sav

SPSS Coding instructions

Description of variable Variable
name
Identification Number id
Gender gender 0=female,1=male
Age Age In years
marital 1=single, 2=married/defacto,
Marital status 3=divorced, 4=widowed
1=primary 2=secondary
Highest education level achieved edlevel 4=undergrad 5= postgrad
Weight(kg) weight In kg
Height(cm) height In Feet
Do you smoke smoke 1=yes 2=no
How many cigarettes perday Smoke num Cigsperday
How many caffeine drinks per day caffeine Drinks per day
Hours sleep/weeknights Hour unit Hrs sleep on average each
weeknight
Hours sleep/weekends Hour wend Hrs sleep on average each
weekend night
How many hours sleep needed Hour need Hrs of sleep needed to not feel
sleepy
Trouble falling asleep? Trubslep 1=yes 2=no
Wakeup during night Wakenite 1=yes 2=no
Work night shift Niteshft 1=yes 2=no
Light sleeper? Liteslp 1=yes 2=no
Wake up feeling refreshed weekdays Refreshd 1=yes 2=no
Satisfaction with amount of sleep Satsleep 1=very dissatisfied 10=very
satisfied
Rate quality of sleep Qualslp 1=verypoor2=poor3=fair4=good
5=verygood6=excellent
Rating of stress over last month Stressmo 1=notat all 10=extremely
Medication to help you sleep? Medhelp 1=yes 2=no
Doyouhaveaproblemwithyoursleep Problem 1=yes 2=no
Rate impact of sleep problem onimpact1 1=not at all 10=to a great extent
mood
Rate impact of sleep problem on 1=not at all 10=to a great extent
energy level
impact2
Rate impact of sleep problem 1=not at all10=to a great extent
on concentration
impact3
Rate impact of sleep problem onimpact4 1=not at all10=to a great extent
memory

Rate impact of sleep problem on life impact5 1=not at all10=to a great extent

Rate impact of sleep problem on 1=not at all10=to a great extent

overall well-being
impact6
Rate impact of sleep problem 1=not at all10=to a great extent
on relationships
impact7
Stop breathing during your sleep stopb 1=yes 2=no

Restless sleeper restlss 1=yes 2=no

Rate how tired over last week tired 1=not at all10=to a great extent

Rate how sleepy over last week sleepy 1=not at all10=to a great extent