Sleep Pattern among +2 Students with Physics as Main Subject

Abstract

Sleep is an important physiological process which is very much essential to lead a healthy life. Sleep was once considered an inactive, or passive, state in which both the body and the brain "turned off" to rest and recuperate from the day's waking activities.  The quality of sleep determines the well being of an individual.  The adequate amount of sleep is very much essential to have better academic performance and also to maintain good health. Two interacting systems—the internal biological clock and the sleep-wake homeostatic largely determine the timing of our transitions from wakefulness to sleep and vice versa. Adolescents face many problems which include sleep problem also — the sleeplessness of adolescents mostly due to academic stress.  Abnormal sleeping habits not only affect the physiological well being but also the psychological well being. Sleep is an important factor to have successful academic performance as well as personal life. Hence the study is intended to find out the sleep habits, Duration of sleep and sleep pattern among higher secondary students with physics as one of the main subjects. The survey method was adopted for this study. The sample consists of 850 +2 Physics students in Sivakasi District. Simple Random Sampling Technique was used. Sleep pattern Inventory developed by the investigator and guide was used to collect the data. The statistical technique used was mean, standard deviation and ‘t’ test. The findings of the study were: i) The level of sleep pattern of +2 physics students is low. ii) There is a significant difference between male and female +2 Physics students in their sleep pattern and iii) there is no significant difference between day scholar and hosteller +2 Physics students in their sleep pattern. The survey method was adopted for this study.