As a third-year student going into my fourth year, my courses have been progressively increasing in the depth of content and difficulty in assessment tasks. These factors have seemed to affect my sleeping patterns and quality through the whole year. From doing some research by looking into studies and research papers, I have formulated a SMART goal to improve my quality of sleep. Improving the quality of my sleep will mainly involve increasing the length of sleep, as well as reducing restlessness in the form of movement during sleep. To achieve my SMART goal, I will be listening to classical music for 45 minutes every night prior to sleeping. The classical music will be of a tempo of 60-80 beats per minute (bpm).
Although there a plethora of methods that are available to measure sleep quality, many of them involve using instruments which are difficult to obtain and set up. Due to this complication, I have decided to use the Groningen Sleep Quality Questionnaire instead. The Groningen Sleep Quality Questionnaire is recognized to be an effective method to determine sleep quality by Jafarian et al. (2008). In the survey, a high Groningen score shows a poor sleep quality, and a lower score shows high sleep quality. Sleep quality is measured by a number of factors, such as the amount of sleep, not having sleep that was restless, and the ability to all asleep and stay asleep. During these two weeks, I hope to achieve at least a 2-point decrease, which would show an improvement in sleep quality.
The inherent nature of summer term courses, being compacted, and the fact I am taking 2 courses this summer on top of having a part time job, dedicating 45 minutes every night, requires me to put time aside to complete this task. Due to these factors, it will be moderately challenging, but can be overcome in the form of implementing a daily plan for the two weeks that I will be undertaking this assignment. The daily plans will incorporate and is not limited to what I need to do for the day, deadlines for the subjects I am taking, and work schedules. I will also be using an alarm at 11:30pm to indicate my bedtime schedule. By following this alarm system, I should be able to achieve a consistent bedtime and allow me to start my 45-minute sessions of classical music listening.
This regime incorporates several steps used in other studies which will enable me to replicate to the best of my ability a realistic study in the form of treatment length and the data gathered in the improvement in sleep quality due to the treatment. Through referring to prior studies, a 45-minute session of classical music before bedtime was the most effective time period.
A 45-minute session every night for two weeks is essential for me to be able to achieve this SMART goal, and as mentioned before, in my SMART goal, it is my intention to schedule every day to allow me to set aside 45 minutes to listen to classical music every night by planning ahead. Throughout the two weeks of the study, my goal is to achieve at least a two-point drop in my Groningen score. This would be indicative of improved sleep quality, and if I do achieve this goal, it would encourage me to continue listening to classical music for 45 minutes every night even after the conclusion of this study.