Afternoon Naps / PB2A

"The Impact of Daytime Sleepiness on the School Performance of College Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Prospective Longitudinal Study"

SUMMARY

Publications usually starts off with a summary. Here, the questions are introduced, hypotheses are proposed, and the reader is given snippets of information in order to understand the study. This section also holds short, simple explanations for methods that allow a surface-level understanding of how the author was able to collect and gather data for the publication. The summary gives the reader an overall view of the purpose of the study, as well as how it was conducted.

In this study, the goal was to determine the relationship between daytime sleepiness in those  with ADHD and performance in school for college students. 62 ADHD students were studied and data was collected from them. Daytime sleepiness was used to predict how well one adjusted to college, performance in school, and severity of symptoms of ADHD.

INTRO

Background information is provided in further detail, in order to allow for a deeper understanding of the study. This provides context for every aspect of the study and finds connections between them. It helps explain how the study is relating the several subjects at hand.

Previous studies confirm the strong association between sleep and school performance. With experiments that have restricted or manipulated sleep, school performance immediately drops. Studies have also shown that daytime sleepiness seems to be relevant to those with ADHD, and is associated with lower grades and a higher dropout rate.

METHODS

Methods are given in full detail, so much so in order to allow others to repeat the study if needed. This is split into subsections, with different methods separated in order to clearly introduce and thoroughly explain which ones are used, how data was extracted from the particular method, and the actual data that was collected (from the study, observations, surveys, etc.).

There are 68 participants from a public university in Virginia. All the participants were required to be a fulltime student and between the ages of 17-30, with any other significant factors (such as medication) noted. Severity of ADHD symptoms were assessed, daytime sleepiness was self-reported, and adjustment, overall function, and GPA were recorded.

RESULTS

An explanation and analysis of the data and its relevance to the hypothesis is given. How are you able to use the data collected? How does it relate to the different aspects of the study, and does it support your hypothesis? You can have a bunch of numbers, observations, and statements that you have compiled, but what are the implications of all that information? You will find a thorough explanation of what it all means here.

Data from the study is organized and compared in the table below. Also shown below are path models made to demonstrate how predictions were made and how gender, type and severity of ADHD symptoms, and daytime sleepiness was taken into consideration.

DISCUSSION
In respect to life, how does this new information fit into our understanding of the world? How will this lead to new discoveries? Why is this important to this field? So what? If needed to repeat this study, what would you change (aka, what limitations are there for this study)? These questions are answered in this section.

This study becomes relevant to many lives. Many with ADHD are currently attending college and struggling with adjustment, school performance, and graduating. Limitations are, like most undergraduate studies, the small pool from which the participants are from. As well as that, medications and psychological disorders were not completely taken into account as they should have been.