Workshop Statistics Lab 5 PreLab
Background: The following information is taken from the University of Michigan Wellness website (http://www.uhs.umich.edu/sleep, viewed 2/18/2009):
Night Owl Nation College students, like Americans overall, are sleeping less. The college years are notoriously sleep-deprived due to all-night cram sessions, parties, TV, the net and a general overload of activity. On average, college students today are going to bed 1-2 hours later and sleeping 1-1.6 hours less than they did a generation ago. As a result, sleep complaints and depression have increased dramatically among college students.
Why Do We Need Sleep? Sleep maintains your circadian rhythms (the light-dependent 24-hour cycle that regulates body and mind), restores your body functions and strengthens your immune system. It also helps you remember what you learn and prepares you for your next challenge.
How Much Sleep Do I Need? Many adults function best with around 8 hours of sleep, but each person has unique needs. Sleep requirements depend on the environment, stress, health, age and many other variables.
But if you're like most college students, you're not getting enough sleep. On average, college students get only 6-6.9 hours of sleep per night.
Pre-lab Questions: Answer the following questions the best you can with your current knowledge. Then proceed to the on-line lab to analyze the data (using a java applet) and to complete the lab report (using a word processing program).
a. For this study, identify the observational units and the response variable of interest.
b. Is the response variable quantitative or categorical?
c. What symbol will we use to refer to the average amount of sleep in our sample?
d. What symbol will we use to refer to the average amount of sleep by all students at your school?
e. What symbol will we use to refer to the standard deviation of the sleep amounts in our sample?
f. What symbol will we use to refer to the standard deviation of the values (sleep amounts) in the population?
g. If you consider the distribution of all sleep times that night in the population, what shape do you suspect this distribution will have? Briefly explain.
h. Do you suspect students at your school get more than 8 hours of sleep on a typical night or less than 8 hours? Or do you have no prior suspicion?
i. Do you suspect students at your school get more than 7 hours of sleep on a typical night or less than 7 hours? Or do you have no prior suspicion?
Now continue to the online lab where you will find instructions for completing the lab write-up.
