Article Critical Review
Nowadays, many adults notice that even healthy children tend to have problems with a sleep behavior and cognitive functioning due to electronic devices and numerous distractions. Unfortunately, there is a strong correlation between sleep duration and intelligence scores in healthy children. Even though everyone wants to live longer and shorten the number of hours spent in bed, it may cause, for instance, the eating disorders, communication problems with coevals, and other mental problems including the issues with a cognitive function.
The researchers Geiger, Achermann, and Jenni proved the importance of sleep for children between the age of 7 and 11. They tried to convey a major idea that every parent should pay much attention to the duration of child’s sleep. In addition, the authors emphasize the quality of the sleep. Thus, the main message of the article was aimed to show that lack of sleep and constant distractions by digital devices cause certain serious problems. Even though these issues cannot influence significantly children aged between 7 and 11, they will surely have a negative impact in the future.
Regarding description of the methods, Geiger, Achermann, and Jenni have tested 60 children aged between 7 and 11. In the study, researchers have used one of the most prominent and famous tests for measuring intellectual abilities — Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. The procedure of tests was in form of questions and sleep diaries as children have to write a 3-5-sentence story about their sleep impressions last night.
Finally, the findings of this research revealed an existing correlation that has a negative association between sleep duration on weekends and measures of intelligence (full-scale IQ, r = -.29; fluid IQ, r = -.36) (Geiger, Achermann and Jenni, 2010)
The research problem of the study is important but not new. Nevertheless, nowadays life is being changing constantly, and scientists have to monitor the correlation between very relevant and significantly important issues - sleep and cognitive abilities.
The hypothesis of the work suggests that not enough sleep correlates with bad cognitive abilities; while the testable presupposes that lack of sleep does not have any impact on children’s cognitive abilities. The researchers provided an adequate and useful review with clear outcomes and gave the most primary sources for the research. Geiger, Achermann, and Jenni operationalized their variables, and the outcome measures became clearly related to the variables with which the investigation is concerned.
Considering a research method, the investigators choose the appropriate design to test the hypotheses of the study. However, questionnaires and sleep diaries could not be appropriate for children between 7 and 11 as they sometimes are not able to express their thoughts clearly and authentically. Consequently, any information gathered this way can bring some inaccurate outcomes. To make clear and valid generalizations on the study hypothesis, the researchers examined 60 children between 7 and 11 from different schools and states. As for the method of ample selection described, Geiger, Achermann, and Jenni used an unbiased sample as they did not select children by social status or financial situation of the family. Considering a rationale given for the selection of the instruments, each of them is described with purpose, content, and reliability. However, the researchers forget to emphasize its validity. Moreover, the investigators did not consider different children’s lifestyle that directly influences the validity of the study and can bring inexact outcomes. Speaking about ethical standards in the treatment of participants, the researchers provide only recommendations about sleep quality and duration. Thus, this treatment will be helpful only for parents or doctors.
Overall, the whole research and all procedures of the study are described providing sufficient details for further investigations — they have both countable and uncountable calculations and conclusions.
The results provided in the research are related to the predictions and hypotheses stated in the introduction. As it was already mentioned, the data is presented very clearly, i.e. the researchers provide the numbers of regression coefficient for sleep duration on weekends which is -6.11 (SE = 2.09). Hence, they indicated an increase of 6.11 points on fluid IQ scores for each hour of shorter sleep duration (Geiger, Achermann, and Jenni, 2010). It proved that researchers have found statistically significant results reported in an unbiased manner.
Even though the authors state their findings theoretically in the introduction, the study still lacks some supporting information. To compare the study outcomes, the data provided is similar to the conflicting information from other research. However, the study did not provide the necessary number of comparisons. One more disadvantage of this research is that the authors do not support their data with any alternative explanations and limitations.
Concerning the implications of the study, Geiger, Achermann, and Jenni indicate a significant correlation between the quality and durability of sleep which leads to the problems with cognitive functions. As for other suggestions made about future research on the topic, the investigators offer to examine the impact of sleep during the day on cognitive functions. These suggestions for future actions are based on practical significance. The conclusions of the researchers are clear, and the overall impression of the journal article is positive. It provides countable and uncountable results and clearly explains the outcomes of the research.
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