Sleepless Nights and Impulsivity: Hidden Cost of Sleep Deprivation

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to study the relationship between no sleep and impulsive behaviors in university students at Malakand. Someone who is impulsive may go ahead with risky actions that could lead to self-harm. Sleep deprivation is caused by either getting fewer hours of sleep or sleeping well, yet for too many hours. Barrett’s impulsivity scale was applied for a psychological evaluation of sleep deprivation. The questionnaire has 30 questions on a 4-point Likert scale to determine impulsivity’s presence among students. The value for reliability of Barrett’s impulsivity scale comes to 0.64, suggesting there is a high level of Cronbach’s alpha. Impulsivity in the adolescents was reflected in poor sleep. A total of 50 students were chosen for the study. In 50 students, those with poor sleep before the first 25 were put into the sleep-deprived group, and those with sufficient sleep were named non-deprived after the first 25 students. The data was analyzed with the help of SPSS (version 21) software. The researchers also conducted an independent samples t-test to see if the mean scores of impulsivities were different for those who were sleep deprived and others who slept well. A linear regression was done to check if being sleep-deprived results in greater impulsivity. Comparisons were made to check the levels of impulsivity (measured by the BIS scale) in two groups. Those who did not get enough sleep had a slightly elevated level of impulsive behavior. But the gap between the two groups is not very significant.