- The student conducted a survey of 83 adolescents at his school in Cyprus about their sleeping habits, finding that most do not get the recommended 9+ hours of sleep. On average, students slept 7.5 hours on school nights and 8.7 hours on weekends. - The survey found that over half of students slept with their mobile phone next to them, despite research showing this can disrupt melatonin production and sleep patterns. Most students spent the hour before bed on social media or homework instead of relaxing activities like reading. - While over half of students felt they got enough sleep, the survey showed that objectively, most age groups were not meeting recommended sleep amounts, particularly 16 year olds who averaged only 5

1. A STUDY OF THE SLEEPING HABITS OF
ADOLESCENTS IN A SCHOOL IN CYPRUS
By Christos Pantazis, Age 13,
Med High School, Larnaca, Cyprus.

2. INTRODUCTION
Like most teenagers I have been told by my
mother on numerous occasions that I do not
sleep enough, that I go to bed too late and I
should not sleep with my mobile phone by my
side. I decided to see if my fellow students had
the same habits as I have and I was curious
to see if these were different with each age
group. I also wanted to research if there was a
scientific basis behind the things we are told
by our parents and guardians .

3. METHOD
I created a survey which asked questions relating to
sleep and behaviours before sleeping. I made 100
copies and gave them to teachers to give randomly
to students at my school. Our school is an
international school with students from over 23
countries therefore I believe this will cancel out any
differences due to culture or nationality. The test was
anonymous and when completed I collected all the
data.
(photo of year 6 pupil completing my survey)
•

5. RESULTS
Out of the 100 copies of the survey that I gave out,
83 were completed. The age groups and sexes were
as follows.
Table below shows the results from Q1-How old are you? and Q2- Are you male or female?
AGE (years) MALE FEMALE TOTAL
12 6 8 14
13 12 11 23
14 3 7 10
15 2 3 5
16 6 7 13
17 8 4 12
18 1 5 6
TOTAL 38 45 83

6. Q3) On average how many hours do you sleep on a school night?
Q4) On average how many hours do you sleep at the weekend?
0
2
4
6
8
10
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Averagenumberofhourssleep.
Age (years)
Average number of hours sleep on a school
night compared to a weekend night.
School Night
Weekend night

7. •
• From our results it can be seen that 15 year olds sleep the most (8.6
hours) and the least 16 year old (5.7 hours).
• All students sleep more at the weekend than they do during the
week.
• The largest difference is 18 year olds with a difference of 3.1 hours.
• The average hours of sleep for all students together during a week
night is 7.54 hours and at the weekend it is 8.7 hours.
Discussion
The University of Stamford (reference 1) says that adolescents
should sleep on average 9.15 hours a night. From my study none of
the age groups sleep that amount in fact the 16 year old group
sleeps 3.45 hours less than this an evening! An article from UCLA
health (reference 2) says this could be because of changing bodies,
busy schedules and social life and a wrong view of sleep.

8. Q5 ) On average what time do you sleep on a school night?
0
5
10
15
20
25
7 p.m 8 p.m 9 p.m 10 p.m 11 p.m 12 p.m 1.0 a.m 2.0 a.m 3.0 a.m
Numberofstudents.
Average time students go to sleep.
Average time students go to sleep on a school night.

9. • My results show that most students sleep at 10
o’clock followed by 11 o clock.
• A couple of students went to bed at 7 o’ clock
and one student regularly goes to bed at 3 in the
morning!
Discussion
It has been seen that the circadian rhythms in
adolescents are different to those in other groups
and so mostly make pupils want to go to bed
later but at the same time wake up later
(reference 2 and 3). These are like biological
clocks that tell us what to do.

10. Q6) Do you sleep with your mobile phone next to you? (within 1
meter of your head)
0
20
40
60
80
100
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Numberofstudents(%)
Age (years)
Percentage of students who sleep with their mobile phones
within 1m distance from their head.

11. I was shocked to see that 51.8% of the students
in our school sleep with their mobile phones next
to them and that 100% of all 17 year olds
surveyed slept with their phones next to them.
Discussion
There has been a lot of press regarding the
effects of phones next to our heads. One theory
says that it suppresses the production of
melatonin a hormone which we produce at night
and effects our sleep patterns but is believed to
have other properties such as anti-cancer
properties (reference 4). It is mainly the LED light
produced by the screens that has these effects.

12. Q7) What do you usually do during the one hour before you
sleep?
I prepared a list of the activities recorded in this box with the most popular
first and the least popular last. These were:
• Social media (phone/IPad)
• Homework
• T.V/ movies
• Video games
• Eat
• Read books
• Shower
• Draw
• Exercise
• Meditate
• Other

13. Discussion
Once again my results show how much adolescents rely on
electrical devises for entertainment before they go to sleep
which again can affect the melatonin levels. Also many of
these activities stimulate and keep you awake such as
playing video games , where as reading is more relaxing.
•
•

14. Q8) Which time of the morning do you feel most ‘awake’ and
most focused?
0
5
10
15
20
25
5 a.m 6 a.m 7 a.m 8 a.m 9 a.m 10 a.m 11 a.m 12 p.m Never
Numberofstudents
Time
Time of morning students feel most 'awake'.

15. Discussion
Most schools in Cyprus start at 7.30 so as to finish by
1.30. This is due to the high temperatures in the spring
and summer in the early afternoon . There has been
much discussion as to whether the time for school and
work should change to suit the time people feel most
feel awake. This was tried out at a school in England
which began at 1.30. (reference 5) instead of 9 o’clock
and there is much discussion as to whether other
schools should change.

16. Q9) Do you think that you get sufficient sleep for your age?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Numberofstudents(%)
Age
Percentage students who believe they receive sufficient
sleep.

17. Discussion
• Roughly half the students questioned (49%) said
yes they get sufficient sleep.
• Surprisingly 74% of 17 year olds said that they
got enough sleep and yet the hours they slept
were the second lowest .
• Only 20% of 15 year olds said they received
enough sleep and yet they slept the most hours
out of all the groups!

18. GENERAL CONCLUSION
I generally think that what our parents and
guardians say to us about sleeping is correct. We do
not sleep enough and technology is most probably
having a negative effect on us although more
research is needed. Maybe we should change our
school hours to suit our circadian rhythms .This
however is an age in which our bodies and brains
are changing and we often cannot help when we
feel tired or sleepy.
•

19. • Limitations of my investigation and further investigations.
• The results would be more reliable if I had more students. Some
age groups were small especially the 15 year old group.
• I would be interested to see the sleeping habits in younger age
group and differences with the season e.g summer with winter.
• It would be interesting to investigate the effects of the lack of sleep
on school performance.
•
• References
• https://web.stanford.edu/~dement/adolescent.html
• http://sleepcenter.ucla.edu/sleep-and-teens
• https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/teens-and-sleep
• https://www.soundsleepinstitute.com/sleep-tips/cell-phone-
causes-sleep-problems/
• http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/could-a-
later-start-to-the-school-day-be-the-most-useful-educational-
reform-of-all-9695407.html

20. THANK YOU
(photo of me sleeping taken by my mother!)